In recent years, provisional CDC data have shown a sharp national decline in overdose deaths — even as public officials warn the street drug supply remains volatile and some communities see signs of a rebound.

That uncertainty is also reshaping the recovery world — especially around opioids. Some people find abstinence-based recovery works best. Others rely on medication-assisted treatment (MAT), using prescribed medicine like methadone or buprenorphine to stabilize a person and reduce the risk of relapse. But MAT has long divided the recovery community, fueling a stigma around a deceptively simple question: 

When is someone sober?

In this encore episode of Us & Them, Trey Kay visits the Clarksburg Mission in Clarksburg, West Virginia — a Christian-centered recovery facility where people pursue different paths toward sobriety — and where debates about medication, morality, and survival are never abstract.

In this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay looks at the history of America’s crime laws to check on provisions that are back - like the so-called Three Strikes law that’s part of Kentucky’s crime bill. In the 1990s, they addressed violent drug crimes, however over the decades the costs of incarcerating more and more people became too big a burden.

This episode was recently honored with a regional Edward R. Murrow Award for Best News Documentary and by the Virginias Associated Press Broadcasters for Best Documentary .

In West Virginia there are nearly 50 specialized court programs designed to help teens and adults kick their drug addictions. Drug courts divert people away from incarceration into a rigorous, court-monitored treatment program. They are intense experiences, some more than a year long. Participants are drug tested regularly and require monitoring devices. Graduation rates across the country show success rates from 29% to more than 60%. There are many supporters within the justice system, but critics say drug courts only work with the easiest first-time offenders and don’t take violent offenders or sex offenders. Some drug courts require a guilty plea before someone can participate, which can limit a person’s options if they don’t make it through the program. In the next Us & Them, host Trey Kay talks with people about this court-designed approach to sobriety that began nearly 50 years ago when the first drug court opened its doors.

It was the largest labor uprising in American history and the largest armed conflict since the Civil War. And yet, the Battle of Blair Mountain is largely unknown to most Americans, including West Virginians. To learn more,  we follow the path of the miners on their march to Mingo, and learn what precipitated the battle.

The episode was honored with an award from The Virginias Associated Press Broadcasters.

People who don’t have good oral health habits and access to regular and quality dental care elevate their risk of other critical health care issues such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes. About more than aesthetics or any toothless hillbilly stereotype, access to dental care is a dangerous culture divide that might look like a class gap but is deeper and far more serious.

This episode was recently honored with a regional award from the Associated Press of the Virginias. The first place honor was for best documentary.

This episode, which was originally posted in January 2021, has been honored with a 2022 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

The road to recovery comes in many forms. For some abstinence works. But others, especially those addicted to opiates, find they need help to get off of such powerful drugs. For their recovery they turn to medication-assisted treatment. That approach has split the treatment world and created a stigma around sobriety.

Today 16% of Americans are over 65. In the next few decades that will double as the youngest Baby Boomers move into old age. But in West Virginia, that future is now. It’s the third oldest state in the nation and more than 20% of its residents are over 65. At the same time, West Virginia’s birth rate is low because young people are leaving. That generational imbalance will increase in coming years.

The numbers show a growing crisis. More seniors want to stay in their homes and the industry has shifted from a nursing home model to one focused on aging in place. That’s led to an explosion in home-based support and care services. But now, those companies struggle to find the workers they need to provide services for the growing elderly population.

People who don’t have good oral health habits and access to regular and quality dental care elevate their risk of other critical health care issues such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes. About more than aesthetics or any toothless hillbilly stereotype, access to dental care is a dangerous culture divide that might look like a class gap but is deeper and far more serious.

After more than 10 years of federal money and a lot of inaction, we look at why high-speed internet service hasn’t found its way into more rural West Virginia homes.

In this episode of Us & Them, we revisit some of the people Trey Kay met over the past year. Teacher Tega Toney explains what she’s learned along with her students and colleagues. Trey checks back with the family of Eli and Amy Snell to see how their five kids are doing with remote classes. And we’ll catch up again with traveling ICU nurse Eva Crockett who’s spent the year moving from one hospital to another to treat COVID patients.

Early on in the pandemic, many states declared day-care facilities to be critical care sites and ordered them open to care for the children of our essential workers. Months later, those businesses face continually evolving regulations designed to keep children and workers safe. The success of our services and our economy is banking on them.

For this episode, Us & Them host Trey Kay has a talk with Copley and Drezner.

The Louisiana case was something the Us & Them team was aware of last November when we released an episode called “Abortion Divides.” Last week, we learned the Public Media Journalists Association honored our program with a national award.  We’re delighted to have our work recognized by our peers in the public media universe.

To acknowledge this recent honor, we are reposting this episode just as we released it back in November 2019. It captures some of the passion people bring to the issue - but it also brought together two women on opposite sides who found more common ground than they -- or we --  expected.   We hope even though the subject of abortion is emotionally charged, people can find a way to speak civilly about their differences.

For this episode, we look at how campus diversity can divide a community and Trey has a conversation with Jack Stripling, Senior Writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education about his article, “Fear of a Black Campus: How an ugly campaign to force out an African American president exposed racial fault lines in a mostly white town.”

For this episode, Trey travels to Skopje, North Macedonia to speak with locals about controversial statues honoring Alexander the Great. He also visits a cemetery in Corinth, Mississippi to visit the graves of soldiers decorated with the Confederate battle flag. Trey also examines the origins and evolution of the song Dixie.

For this episode, Trey speaks with reporter Max Nesterak about his American Public Media documentary, “Uprooted: The 1950s Plan To Erase Indian Country.”

Spoiler Alert: There are a lot of “cupped” leaves on trees surrounding Arkansas soybean fields

Trey has met with lawyers and others grieving such a loss.  Multiple delays have pushed back Pulliam’s trial. One delay was to assess Pulliam’s mental competency, a move the Means’ family just doesn’t understand. In December 2018, Pulliam was finally declared mentally competent, and his trial is scheduled to start in early May 2019.

With so many delays, the Means family, has little confidence in the legal system.  As the trial date approaches, they’re waiting for justice.

You’ve never been told that?

Chances are you’re not African American. In this episode, Trey Kay examines “The Black Talk,” which is the sober conversation that many black families have with their teenage kids – particularly teenage boys – about how they should conduct themselves when stopped by the police.

Spoiler alert: Black parents, like any parent, want their kids to come home alive.

We’ll also learn from a chapter of Charleston, West Virginia’s Civil Rights legacy from a minister mentored by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

After the Bush Administration launched the War on Terror, Begg was detained and held at the U.S. Detention Camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Melise was a Gitmo guard. You can’t get much more Us & Them than that.

A disproportionate number of the dead are from West Virginia. For several years, the state has led the nation in per-capita opioid-related deaths.

In this episode, hosts Trey Kay and Chery Glaser talk about the origins of the Appalachian drug epidemic. They're joined by Los Angeles crime reporter Sam Quinones, the author of Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic, and by Ian Kessinger, a former addict who now runs a recovery clinic in Elkins, West Virginia.

Trey talks with Cherry Glazer of KCRW in California in the latest episode of “Red State Blue State,” our weekly chat between Trump Country and the Blue Bubble.

Trey talks with Emily Hanford about her radio documentary, “Hard Words.”

That’s easy to forget when we talk about big blocks of voters, like congressional districts or entire states.

So Blue State host Chery Glaser takes it to the personal level and talks with two voters.

In Southern California, Linda Rife is a music composer. She identifies as "liberal," but she’s registered as an independent.

In West Virginia, Deana Samms is a family therapist and an evangelical Christian. She voted for Donald Trump in 2016 but struggled with that decision.

These two related issues – climate change and energy jobs – get very different reactions in California and Appalachia. You’ll hear those reactions in this installment of “Red State, Blue State,” our weekly chat between Trump Country and the Blue Bubble.

That question came from listeners.

“Red State Blue State” is a collaboration between Us & Them and KCRW in Santa Monica, California. Each week until the midterm election, we’re presenting a new segment co-hosted by Trey Kay in West Virginia and Chery Glaser in Southern California.

Former Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg about the meaning of the term jihad.

Former Guantanamo MP Albert Melise explains why he wanted to re-enlist and go back to the island.

Andrea Pitzer, journalist and author of One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps, on whether or not she thinks the United States will ever face up to what was done at Guantanamo Bay and black sites around the world.

You’ve never been told that?

Chances are you’re not African American. In this episode, Trey Kay examines “The Black Talk,” which is the sober conversation that many black families have with their teenage kids – particularly teenage boys – about how they should conduct themselves when stopped by the police.

Spoiler alert: Black parents, like any parent, want their kids to come home alive.