Roads Anthony News Today

[ cheering ] ♪ >> robie: this place was a boomin. you couldnt get through this town down there. but its dead now. about eight or ten coal mines shut down at one time. >> coach: lets go! its the same halftime speech every single week. >> quentin: there is so much negativity surrounding this place that no one ever focuses on the positive. they see us as ignorant or hillbillies. >> daniel whitt: overdose capital of the east coast. >> quentin: but theres more here than just poverty and i...

>> lola: yes. after strip mines are done here, the lands usually just useless. so, were trying to make a purpose. pumpkins, watermelon, were just trying to figure out what will grow on it. >> anthony: so there is life after coal? >> lola: theres life after coal. so what do you think about that squirrel? >> anthony: oh man, its good. >> lola: its good, aint it? >> anthony: thank you. >> drema: they call it "wild and wonderful west virginia." >> anthony: it is. and, your girls are how old? >> lola...

Living here, is a really big challenge because rarely, people like myself actually are the ones that control our narrative, that control our story. ♪ >> anthony: it was always too easy to come gawk at west virginia. to make it the poster child for whatever the agenda of the moment was. lazy depictions of stereotypical west virginians. hillbillies and hicks, tucked into isolated hollers to be pitied or made objects of laughter and derision. >> elaine: if you google appalachia to this day, youre...

>> mike: weve got some sweet corn chowder. next, weve got these crackers, theyre broken communion wafers. you know, the way that appalachian food has always worked is you work within your means and you create something pretty special out of what you have at your disposal. weve kind of suffered from this in a way. it created this sort of rush towards the middle class and a rush toward the perception that were better than the food that we used to have to eat. >> john jennings: yeah, i think we wer...

>> nick: there are some political figures that come through and say that they will try to get away from the mono-economy of coal. >> man: i just want to know, how you can say youre going to put a lot of coal miners out of jobs, and then come in here and tell us how youre going to be our friend? >> nick: i dont think people understand just how genuine and wonderful the people are in these mountains. people who have just worked all their lives and who sacrifice so much for their families. ♪ >> a...

♪ [ radio chatter ] ♪ >> patrick: today, were going about 5,000 feet. >> anthony: 5,000 feet deep? >> patrick: yeah, oh yeah. [ thumping ] >> anthony: pat graham is the foreman at the pay car mine in kimball. >> anthony: so this is for steel? >> patrick: yeah. the average wage of a miner is 60% greater than the average wage of all labors in the united states. thats pretty phenomenal. its easy to see why people in mcdowell county want mining jobs. ♪

Inspector. >> anthony: now your family is originally from naples, is that right? >> linda: yes. >> anthony: naples area? >> linda: came here in 1923 trying to strike it rich in the coalmines. my mother died when i was five, so we went to live with my nonna, and the first day i was there she pulled me up to a cook stove. >> anthony: dinner is a not untypical expression of hard scrabble appalachian practicality -- >> linda: now i dont measure anything, so nothing has a recipe here. >> anthony: -- ...

Pumpkins? ♪ >> justin: just mixed up a binary explosive. ♪ some are small, and some are big. >> justin: 3, 2, 1. [ rapid fire ] >> anthony: whatever you feel about gun rights, there is an undeniable, visceral thrill to blowing shit up. people who like guns, like them for a reason. >> justin: thats a whole lot of america right there. >> anthony: its not mine. [ laughter ] >> chef: two choices: venison or beef, with or without cheese. >> anthony: venison and d chees. >> chef: venison and chees...

Helpless mass, missed the basic essential character -- the pride and the self-reliant core of the people here. that damage is lasting. >> elaine: when you come in and keep telling us how poor, fat -- how all these things are -- i think weve all felt it at some point. shame. >> anthony: what should people know about this area that they dont know, that theyre not getting? its just how much that people in this area have been exploited. [ bells ringing ] [ machines whirring ] >> nick: the land agent...

>> nick mullins: i mean, the mountains -- its hard to get signals down into each individual valley. >> anthony: nick mullins is a former coal miner turned writer. working in public outreach trying to help people transition away from fossil fuel. >> elaine: try calling an ambulance here and getting out of the county to the closest hospital. they dont deliver babies in the hospital in this county anymore. >> anthony: elaine mcmillion sheldon is an oscar nominated documentary filmmaker born and rai...