This week, in author Willie Carver, Jr.’s new book, he reconsiders a negative childhood experience with a neighborhood girl who might have just been looking for a friend. Also, a southwestern Virginia community rang the alarm after more and more of its children were diagnosed with cancer. A local journalist is trying to unravel the cause. And, the city of Asheville has a new crusading reporter. He’s a puppet.
With the start of 2025, legislators in some states are determined to pass even tighter abortion restrictions.
In the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, more than 40 states have passed abortion bans — some with very limited exceptions. Abortion rights advocates are equally determined to expand access to reproductive care, and many are revisiting lessons from half a century ago, before legal abortion was guaranteed.
On the next episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay hears from retired Episcopal priest Jim Lewis, who decades ago joined a network of “Religious Left” clergy to help women navigate pre-Roe barriers. Kay also speaks with Margaret Chapman-Pomponio, executive director of West Virginia FREE, about how supporters of reproductive rights are preparing for a new era of advocacy, even as anti-abortion advocates urge a Republican majority in Congress to tighten medication regulations and enact a federal abortion ban.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the CRC Foundation.
Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond.
The Rev. Jim Lewis, left, and Margaret Chapman-Pomponio, right, at a convention in New Orleans, La., for the Spiritual Alliance of Churches for Reproductive Dignity. Lewis is a retired Episcopal priest who has championed social justice issues for more than a half-century. Before the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, he was part of the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion — a coalition that referred women from states where abortion was illegal to providers in New York, where the procedure was legal. Chapman-Pomponio is the executive director of West Virginia Free, an abortion rights and reproductive health advocacy nonprofit.
There are still many questions that surround the chemical incident near Institute last week that killed two workers. Chris Schulz spoke with Dr. Christopher Martin, a specialist in occupational and environmental medicine at West Virginia University (WVU), to try and shed some light on what happened.
On this West Virginia Week, the air around the site of a chemical leak near Institute is determined safe, the state reaches a settlement with Roblox, and Charleston photographer Perry Bennett represents Team USA in Iceland.
This week, in author Willie Carver, Jr.’s new book, he reconsiders a negative childhood experience with a neighborhood girl who might have just been looking for a friend. Also, a southwestern Virginia community rang the alarm after more and more of its children were diagnosed with cancer. A local journalist is trying to unravel the cause. And, the city of Asheville has a new crusading reporter. He’s a puppet.
Kentucky writer Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr’s new book Tore All To Pieces weaves poetry and short stories into a narrative about people and place. Inside Appalachia’s Bill Lynch recently spoke with Carver and brings us this conversation.
