Amazing Stories from Appalachia
List of podcasts curated by: Matty Staudt, president of Jam Street Media
Photo by Abigail Ducote on Unsplash
EarBuds is a weekly podcast recommendations newsletter and podcast. We bring subscribers and listeners a theme and five podcast episodes on that theme, and each week is curated by a different person. So, you never have to worry about where you’ll find your next favorite podcast. From time to time, we also put out a mid-week mini-list on our blog. We use these mini-lists as a way of putting out topical content for our content partners and podcast friends!
Thank you, Matty, for curating this mid-week mini-list of podcast recommendations for us on this fascinating topic!
MATTY WRITES: I grew up in West Virginia and I believe that the best storytellers come from Appalachia. I love helping bring the voices from home to everyone.
PODCAST RECOMMENDATIONS:
Click on the images to listen to these podcasts…
Podcast: Appalachia Mysteria
Episode: Raveling Out
Description: Appalachian Mysteria is an investigative journalism podcast that tackles mysterious and disturbing deaths in the Appalachian region. This is the first episode of season 3, which investigates the murder of a lesbian couple near the Appalachian Trail. As authorities build the first federal sexuality-based hate crime prosecution in the nation's history, a web of horrific crimes creeps down the Blue Ridge mountains into the heart of Virginia.
Podcast: Appodlachia
Episode: Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place
Description: Hosts Chuck Corra and Big John Isner were tired of the negative portrayal of Appalachia in the media, so they started this podcast to push back against that narrative and to provide a new and authentic voice for a region misunderstood and forgotten by most of the country. They are shrewd, witty, comical, sometimes irreverent, and always honest. This episode features an interview with Neema Avashia, author of the forthcoming memoir "Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place.”
Podcast: Criminal
Episode: The Boycott
Description: Criminal is a show about people who have done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle. Produced in North Carolina, it is a leader in the podcasting space for Appalachians. This episode explores what happened fifteen years after the Supreme Court ruled that school segregation was unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education, when many schools across the South remained segregated. It dives into the fight for desegregation led by Black students and their families in a very rural part of North Carolina.
Podcast: Old Gods of Appalachia
Episode: Episode 1: Old Number Seven: Barlo, Kentucky 1917: Part One
Description: Old Gods of Appalachia is an eldritch horror anthology podcast set in the darkest mountains in the world. This world is an Alternate Appalachia, where these mountains were never meant to be inhabited. Like any good fiction podcast, the best place to start is the first episode.
Podcast: Inside Appalachia
Episode: Building Cultural Bridges From Ukraine To Appalachia, Mexilachian Music, And We Learn How A Black Recreation Area Is Seeing New Life
Description: This podcast tells the stories of Appalachian people and how they live today. Hosts Caitlin Tan and Mason Adams lead listeners on an audio tour of the region’s rich history, food, music, and culture. This episode explores the geographical and intercultural connections between Appalachia and Ukraine. It also goes back to several stories originally aired last fall, including one about a park in southwestern Virginia that was created during the Jim Crow-era as one of the only recreation areas in central Appalachia for Black residents.
Thank you to Matty for curating this mid-week list for us at EarBuds Podcast Collective. If you’re interested in submitting a list, do so here.
