Search results for

Peter O’Leary, Mayor of Chimney Rock Village in Western North Carolina, talks with us about restoration and recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene’s destruction. O’Leary’s business sustained heavy damage during the storm, but like many others in his community, he is rebuilding and reopening.

In part two of our interview with Marshall University’s Dr. Chris White, we look at how epidemics have affected the Appalachian region, including a comparison between the so-called “Spanish “ flu pandemic of 1918 and the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. White is co-editor of the new book Appalachian Epidemics: From Smallpox to COVID-19, published by the University Press of Kentucky. The photo here comes from what became known as the “Summer Without Children,” in 1950, when Wytheville, Virginia, had the highest per capita rate of polio in the nation.

In the first of two programs on the subject, we discuss prostate cancer, the most common cancer among men. Our guest is Dr. Kristen Scarpato, Associate Professor of Urology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

We visit the tiny community of Broylesville, in Washington County, Tennessee, to talk with Cheryl Bennett. She and her husband Dwight own and live in the old Broylesville Mill, and they are documenting the history of mills throughout the region.

Dr. John Shelton Reed, an authority on all things Southern and a retired University of North Carolina sociology professor, returns to “Vital Voices.” This time his subject is a classic New Orleans cocktail, created in the 1890s. Dr. Reed’s book, The Ramos Gin Fizz, was recently published by the Louisiana State University Press as part of its Iconic New Orleans Cocktails series.

We travel to Hiltons Memorial United Methodist Church in Scott County, Virginia, to witness the fall ritual of making apple butter, with members of the congregation.

The late B.B. King would have turned 100 on September 16, 2025. This program features excerpts from “Vital Voices” host Fred Sauceman’s 2002 visit with King in Indianola, Mississippi, where King played gospel and blues music on streetcorners as a young man.

Kentucky State University in Frankfort is the only full-time pawpaw research program in the world. We talk with Dr. Kirk Pomper, Professor of Horticulture, about the largest edible fruit native to North America.

We revisit our interview with Mary Louise Kelly, co-host of NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Her book It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs is now out in paperback.

A rebroadcast of our interview with Guy Consolmagno, Director of the Vatican Observatory in Rome.