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This is part two of our interview with Allan Benton, proprietor of Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams in Madisonville, Tennessee.

November was the traditional time for hog-killing in Appalachia, and the pig has played a central role in the region’s cuisine. In the first of two programs, we visit with one of the nation’s most respected pork producers, Allan Benton, owner of Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams in Madisonville, Tennessee.

Our guest is Dr. Cindy Ott, associate professor of history at the University of Delaware. She is the author of the book Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon.

This is a rebroadcast of our interview with Dr. Bob Miller, who died on October 31, 2024, at the age of 106.

We rebroadcast our interview with Gayle Manchin, Federal Co-Chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission.

We visit with World War II historian Dr. Colin Baxter, Professor Emeritus of History at East Tennessee State University. He talks about the explosive RDX and its production in Kingsport, Tennessee, and Hawkins County, Tennessee, in the 1940s.

Missy Jones has a new cookbook out, published in late 2024. This is a rebroadcast of our earlier interview with her about the foodways of Eastern Kentucky, where she was raised.

We learn about traditional holiday foods of the 18th century with North Carolina author Mary Bohlen.

In this special Kwanzaa edition of “Vital Voices,” Helen and Paul Okpokowuruk, originally from Nigeria, talk about their entrepreneurial activities in East Tennessee. Their company produces Royal Red Stew at the Mountain Harvest Kitchen in Unicoi, Tennessee.

We look at the religious life of the late President Jimmy Carter, through the recollections of his close friend Jan Williams. When President Carter taught Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, it was Jan Williams who coordinated all the logistics. She had been the fourth-grade teacher of Amy Carter, the youngest child of President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn.