In this edition of Mountain Talk: he may be retiring, but he’s still fired up— we start our show with a lively, feisty speech from longtime UMWA President Cecil Roberts, who stepped into that role back in 1995, and just retired last month, after 30 years. In this talk, which he gave this summer at the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum in Matewan, Roberts, a WV native, reflects on the long and rich history of coal union organizing in Appalachia—including how his own great-grandparents were evicted from their Fayette County home, back in 1902, by a coal company, because they’d been suspected of supporting the union—and why he thinks, given the state of the country and the economy, the union is as important now as it’s ever been. Our thanks to the folks at the WV Mine Wars Museum for sharing the audio of this speech with us.
Then: November is National Diabetes Awareness Month, and, sadly, eastern Kentucky has higher rates of type 2 diabetes than both the state and national averages. But even if it runs in your family, diabetes *can* be managed, or even prevented in the first place. And for the second half of our show this week, as part of our ongoing series Prevent Diabetes EKY, we sit down with Allie Vogel, director of the Letcher County Public Library, to hear about both her challenges and her successes in her diabetes journey— including how she cut her A1C level plum in half. And as a quick PS, for more stories like this, of preventing and managing type 2 diabetes in eastern Kentucky, check out our project website: www.preventdiabeteseky.org.
(Music this week is by J.P. & Annadeene Fraley, from the June Appal Records release “Galleynipper,” and by Don Bikoff, from the Free Music Archive.)
All content for WMMT Public Affairs & Podcasts is the property of WMMT/Appalshop and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
In this edition of Mountain Talk: he may be retiring, but he’s still fired up— we start our show with a lively, feisty speech from longtime UMWA President Cecil Roberts, who stepped into that role back in 1995, and just retired last month, after 30 years. In this talk, which he gave this summer at the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum in Matewan, Roberts, a WV native, reflects on the long and rich history of coal union organizing in Appalachia—including how his own great-grandparents were evicted from their Fayette County home, back in 1902, by a coal company, because they’d been suspected of supporting the union—and why he thinks, given the state of the country and the economy, the union is as important now as it’s ever been. Our thanks to the folks at the WV Mine Wars Museum for sharing the audio of this speech with us.
Then: November is National Diabetes Awareness Month, and, sadly, eastern Kentucky has higher rates of type 2 diabetes than both the state and national averages. But even if it runs in your family, diabetes *can* be managed, or even prevented in the first place. And for the second half of our show this week, as part of our ongoing series Prevent Diabetes EKY, we sit down with Allie Vogel, director of the Letcher County Public Library, to hear about both her challenges and her successes in her diabetes journey— including how she cut her A1C level plum in half. And as a quick PS, for more stories like this, of preventing and managing type 2 diabetes in eastern Kentucky, check out our project website: www.preventdiabeteseky.org.
(Music this week is by J.P. & Annadeene Fraley, from the June Appal Records release “Galleynipper,” and by Don Bikoff, from the Free Music Archive.)
Fannie Callahan - Prevent Diabetes and Frank Majority
WMMT Public Affairs & Podcasts
59 minutes 5 seconds
4 months ago
Fannie Callahan - Prevent Diabetes and Frank Majority
Even if diabetes runs in your family, if you find out that your own A1C, or blood sugar level, is in the diabetes range, that still doesn’t mean your future with diabetes is set in stone.
And Fannie Callahan, of Lee County, is living proof. Despite having a family history of diabetes, when Fannie found out her A1C had crossed over into the diabetes zone, she jumped into action, changing what she ate every day and starting to go out walking as often as she could. Before long, her A1C had fallen back down into a safer range, and, she says, she just felt better in general. This week on Mountain Talk, we visit with Fannie, as part of our ongoing storytelling series Prevent Diabetes EKY, and hear about her diabetes journey— including how, even if she’s exercising more, she still makes time to watch basketball.
Also this week: having immigrants for neighbors is nothing new in Appalachia. We close this episode with a profile of Frank Majority, a Letcher County stone mason of Italian descent, and the son of immigrants. In this piece, which was adapted from an episode of Appalshop’s Headwaters TV series (1983; dir. by Marty Newell, Anne Lewis, & Jeff Kiser), Majority describes his father’s experience as an immigrant to the mountains in the early 20th century.
WMMT Public Affairs & Podcasts
In this edition of Mountain Talk: he may be retiring, but he’s still fired up— we start our show with a lively, feisty speech from longtime UMWA President Cecil Roberts, who stepped into that role back in 1995, and just retired last month, after 30 years. In this talk, which he gave this summer at the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum in Matewan, Roberts, a WV native, reflects on the long and rich history of coal union organizing in Appalachia—including how his own great-grandparents were evicted from their Fayette County home, back in 1902, by a coal company, because they’d been suspected of supporting the union—and why he thinks, given the state of the country and the economy, the union is as important now as it’s ever been. Our thanks to the folks at the WV Mine Wars Museum for sharing the audio of this speech with us.
Then: November is National Diabetes Awareness Month, and, sadly, eastern Kentucky has higher rates of type 2 diabetes than both the state and national averages. But even if it runs in your family, diabetes *can* be managed, or even prevented in the first place. And for the second half of our show this week, as part of our ongoing series Prevent Diabetes EKY, we sit down with Allie Vogel, director of the Letcher County Public Library, to hear about both her challenges and her successes in her diabetes journey— including how she cut her A1C level plum in half. And as a quick PS, for more stories like this, of preventing and managing type 2 diabetes in eastern Kentucky, check out our project website: www.preventdiabeteseky.org.
(Music this week is by J.P. & Annadeene Fraley, from the June Appal Records release “Galleynipper,” and by Don Bikoff, from the Free Music Archive.)
