In this episode Jason talks with Farahn Morgan about growing up in
Appalachia, moving to DC and going to college, moving back home near her
family and community, and her work in news, journalism, and how she
frames it: storytelling. They dig into the nature of ‘expertise’,
culture, folk traditions and how they are exploited, making a living in
the modern political economy and the difficulties of doing that while
still preserving traditional lifeways, the blessing and curse of the
coal industry, the current story she’s working on looking into
wildcrafting and how it connects to the Cherokee side of her ancestry,
deaths of despair, the importance of choosing to build a home and
connect to place despite the currents working against it, the importance
of learning from elders, her views on the Foxfire series, book
recommendations for understanding Appalachia, and much more.

*Note, there is a bonus section at the end where the formal conversation
wrapped up but they accidentally didn’t stop recording the more
informal discussion, which they both decided to leave in



Bio: Farahn is a writer living and working at home in Appalachia. After
spending nearly a decade in politics and media in Washington, D.C., she
returned to Southwest Virginia and Eastern Kentucky to be close to her
family, understand their history and traditions more intimately, and
re-establish her connection to the land and herself. She is still
learning. Read her words at http://LongRoadHome.substack.com, County Highway, RealClearBooks & Culture, The Washington Examiner, and WrongSpeak.