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We talk with Sarah McCammon, a National Political Correspondent for NPR, about her newly released book, The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church.

On a Peace Corps assignment in Zimbabwe, Kingsport, Tennessee, native Mark Overbay observed the making of a peanut butter paste for use in groundnut stews. It was his inspiration, over a decade later, to start Big Spoon Roasters, a company that specializes in hand-crafted nut butters.

We visit the Elizabethton-Carter County Public Library and talk with archivist Joe Penza about the collection of historical items there, as well as a new grant the Archives has received.

In a special fundraising edition of “Vital Voices,” we’re joined by Marat Moore, a writer, photographer, activist, and former coal miner, who speaks about her loyalty to WETS and Public Radio over the years.

It’s a story repeated often in the mountains of Appalachia. A family has to leave the homeplace in search of employment. Missy Jones had to leave her home in Letcher County, Kentucky, for that reason. But in her new home 3 ½ hours away, she pays homage to the cooking of Eastern Kentucky.

We talk with Dr. Evan A. Kutzler from Western Michigan University about an 1898 cookbook that has been revived. He is the editor of From Biscuits to Lane Cake: Emma Rylander Lane’s “Some Good Things to Eat,” a reprint edition published by Mercer University Press in 2023. The Lane Cake was mentioned by Harper Lee in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird. The Alabama legislature has named it Alabama’s official “state dessert.”

Dr. Ronald E. Beller, President of East Tennessee State University from 1980-91, died on April 6, 2024, at the age of 88. This interview with him, from the WETS archive, was recorded on May 2, 2003.

With the Memorial Day holiday weekend upcoming, we get important boating safety tips from Matt Cameron, with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, the organization responsible for patrolling the state’s waterways.

We look back 63 years to a turning point in world history with Dr. Eduardo Zayas-Bazán, who, as a Cuban exile, participated in the Bay of Pigs Invasion on the southwestern coast of Cuba in April of 1961.

We hear a voice familiar to public radio listeners across the country: that of Larry Groce, creator of the program “Mountain Stage,” produced by West Virginia Public Broadcasting for over 40 years. Larry hosted the program from 1983 until 2021, when West Virginia native Kathy Mattea took over the hosting duties. In addition to the history of the program, we discuss a new compilation album, “Live on Mountain Stage: Outlaws and Outliers.”