Eastern Standard

Jonathan Hibbard as Nick Bottom. (Photo by Adam Holhubner)

If Eastern Kentucky wants control of how the region is portrayed to the world, what should that new narrative say? We get the perspectives of a folklorist and a branding and…

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 Affordable housing and housing affordability: the perspectives of a fair housing advocate, an urban homebuilder and a rural housing developer | "Everyday places" with dark histories as sites of mob lynchings | Kentucky's efforts to open classroom teaching…

Kentucky Theater (Photo courtesy of The Kentucky Theater)

What's in store for the century-old Kentucky Theater? Competing management proposals are on the table | The red hot demand for short term certificates | Adam Edelen's solar power vision in E…

Minnie Adkins carvings (Photo by Cheri Lawson)

This week: an Eastern Standard special edition. In a time when local news media is shrinking, WEKU has been expanding its news team to keep you informed of what's happening around central and…

Craft Moonshine Still (Image: Shutterstock)

In retrospect: how the state legislature performed on social, criminal justice issues | Country music and people of color | UK's new course on moonshine and the elixir's role in Appalachian economic development |  The…

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Rent relief for tenants and landlords | Pondering a new career- track? The Kentucky sign-language profession has openings | The aims of the Appalachian Renewal Project | A new book about a 1901 mob-lynching in Paris, Ky |…

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 Alan Maimon was a foreign correspondent for the NYTimes before joining the Louisville Courier-Journal with the assignment to “cover Eastern Kentucky like a foreign correspondent would.” How did that go? He’s written a book about it. We talk…

Daniel Boone National Forest (Image: Shutterstock)

  The connection between deforestation and flash flooding in E. Kentucky | What's in the water? Results of sampling E. Ky. creeks and streams | State Senator Reginald Thomas on race relations in Lexington, circa…

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Why the price of lumber is so high | The Hindman Settlement School's new director | What was a Rosenwald School and why is one in Adair County being restored? | Duane Lundy's new series on the creative…

Appalachian Conservation Corps Crew

Forest Farming: Can it work for Eastern Kentucky? | In service to the public and the environment: the Appalachian Conservation Corps | Solar advocates see power balance between customers, utilities | A history of activism in…

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Cheating apps and learning | What forgiven student loans would mean to Kentuckians and Kentucky | State of Justice Series: Police, violence and accountability | Type 2 diabetes patients urged to get covid vaccine | Helping communities draw…

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For a 3rd consecutive year Kentucky ranks number one in the nation for child maltreatment, and has one of the nation’s highest rates of these children who are now being raised by relatives or family friends. |  Matilda…

(Credit: Vivian Stockman and Southwings)

A brief history of the deforestation of Appalachia and efforts now underway to return abandoned mine lands to something approximating their original state. Surface mining in Appalachia has replaced approximately one million acres of eastern…

Poet Tina Parker discusses her new release, "Lock Her Up." |  Criminal Justice Series: County jails still overcrowded with state prison overflow | How offices are changing, innovating to accommodate a covid-altered world | Southland's Tahlsound Music Festival is back…

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Who will tend to the development of young minds? Public school teachers are increasingly in short supply as we’ll hear from Lt. Governor Jacqueline Coleman, herself a teacher. | Space vehicles from Morehead? Yes, seven and counting. |…

The Brood X Cicada (Stephen Jaffe/AFP via Getty Images) 

 It's been a year. What's been happening in cooped up households? We think we can make a good guess in general terms, but for a more focused look we turn to…

The memorabilia of racism. A conversation with a collector of Mammy and Uncle Mose salt & pepper shakers | So, what happens now? An all effort to get the workforce vaccinated and back to work leaves managers wondering how many…

Beattyville, Ky., following heavy rains which caused the Kentucky River to flood, Tuesday, March 2, 2021. (Alex Slitz/Lexington Herald-Leader)

Flooding is Kentucky's most frequent and most costly natural disaster. A look at the impact and dynamics of  the late February-early…

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A report card on America's crumbling infrastructure. Hint: our GPA is in the "remedial" range | An example of infrastructure investment rises on the Coldstream Research Campus | Identifying weak links in the "critical items" supply chain |…

 Ben Sollee (Photo by Jessica Ebelhar) 

Tracking legislation to eliminate some hurdles  residential child care | Our series Virtues of a Democratic Society focuses on "Courage" | Kentucky cellist, singer, composer Ben Sollee on life as a Covid-19 "long hauler"…

Big Sandy Federal Penitentiary near Inez, KY (Photo: Federal Bureau of Prisons)

Do prisons bring economic prosperity to struggling rural counties? The question raised in the latest in our “State of Justice” series | On being a volunteer prisoner visitor…

Unemployment line Frankfort ​​​(Photo: Lexington Herald-Leader)

What's wrong with the state's Unemployment Insurance system? How much time do you have? Kentucky Auditor Mike Harmon has looked under the hood | Covid, schools, and reopening. It's not simple says EKU Psychologist…

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“The talk.” Berea College professor Dwayne Mack discusses the day-to-day of parenting and growing up Black in an inhospitable world. |  Corinne Boyer with Part One of a series on addiction in a pandemic | “Too many not…

(NPR TV Critic Eric Deggans)

 NPR TV Critic Eric Deggans offers a preview of his upcoming lecture in the EKU Chautauqua Series. Hint: he has a lot to say about the state of media, both news and entertainment, and how…