Wes Swing News Today

This week, we’re airing an encore episode of Inside Appalachia. We'll meet a man who makes wooden turkey calls. We'll also meet people who make wooden paddles by hand and custom-decorate each one, and a man who repairs cuckoo clocks. Finally, we’ll travel to some of the most beautiful spots in Appalachia to find wildflowers, like Dolly Sods and the Canaan Valley of West Virginia.

This week on Inside Appalachia, we’re talking about traditional ballads — how they tell stories and connect us to the past. These old tunes can mean so much. They can tap into difficult emotions and give feelings space to be heard. Some songs may even be too uncomfortable to sing.

This week, we’re airing an encore episode of Inside Appalachia.We’ll meet a man who makes wooden turkey calls, not ordinary turkey calls. Painter Brian Aliff doesn’t call himself an artist, but he intricately paints his turkey calls, which are now collectors’ items. We’ll also meet people who make wooden paddles by hand and custom-decorate each one, and a man who repairs cuckoo clocks.

This week on Inside Appalachia, we listen to stories from 2021 that tackle everything from the challenges that came with virtual schooling to using poetry to change public perception.

This week, we’ll meet a man who has struggled with substance use disorder. Now, he’s a recovery coach.We’ll also meet a woman who started a farm and culinary training program to help people in recovery.And childhood friends who first started singing together 70 years ago show why it’s never too late to begin again…You’ll hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.

This week on Inside Appalachia, we’re talking about traditional ballads -- how they tell stories and connect us to the past.

This week, we begin our journey throughout Appalachia in Floyd County, Virginia, home of Earl White. White is working to amplify the often-overlooked participation of Black musicians in old-time music. Then, we’ll travel back to the early 20th century, when nurse Mary Breckenridge launched a midwifery program in Eastern Kentucky. That program would become known across the world for its positive impacts on infant survival rates. We hear from the director of the film, Angels on Horseback to lear...

This week, we’re airing an encore episode of Inside Appalachia. We’ll meet a man who makes wooden turkey calls, not ordinary turkey calls. We’ll also meet people who make wooden paddles by hand and custom-decorate each one, and a man who repairs cuckoo clocks. Finally, we’ll travel to some of the most beautiful spots in Appalachia to find wildflowers.

In this week’s episode of Inside Appalachia, we’ll hear about Black musicians and luthiers who are reclaiming the banjo -- an instrument with deep roots in Africa and a difficult history in The United States. We’ll also hear about The Bristol Sessions — recording sessions known for bringing country music out of the hollers and onto radios, and for making stars of Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family. But that well-known story left out a whole group of musicians -- the Black musicians who...

Lawmakers across Appalachia are debating how issues of race are taught in public schools, but the U.S. isn’t the only country with an unsettling history to deal with.In Germany, teachers are mandated to include lessons about one of their nation’s darkest chapters — the Holocaust.