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We tell stories from the fault lines that separate Americans. Peabody Award-winning public radio producer Trey Kay listens to people on both sides of the divide.
Connie Chapman is a life coach, speaker and writer who teaches practical, yet soulful ways to clear out struggle, fear and limitation and live with more fulfilment, freedom and flow. On Awaken Radio Connie brings you heart-opening conversations and inspiring interviews with thought leaders and experts from all over the world. You will hear raw, honest and vulnerable conversations which share the transformative journeys that both Connie and her guests have walked. Each episode is filled with ...
Christopher Cumby along with his co-host Allan Wich will help you discover the unique world of success from real stories of the super successful!
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Pocahontas County Contradiction — Sure, They Can Hear Mars, But Dependable Broadband Seems Like A Galaxy Away
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The pandemic has taught us the value of the internet; for work, school, even to order the essentials of life. The past year has also exposed the brutal realities of the digital divide. Access to reliable, fast internet is essential for city and country dwellers. In this episode of Us & Them, we’ll hear about the internet challenges from residents o…
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We've Lost & We've Learned In The Year of COVID-19
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It’s been a year since the coronavirus started a global pandemic. A third of Americans now know someone who has died from COVID-19. The virus has forced daily decisions to stay healthy and safe. We’ve accepted a level of isolation into our lives - distancing from people and staying at home as we can. And we’ve seen medical researchers develop treat…
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Fatal Overdoses: Pandemic is Especially Deadly for West Virginians Battling Addictions
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The COVID-19 vaccine continues to roll out but there’s no obvious fix for other long term medical consequences of the pandemic. A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows the deadliest year ever for overdose deaths in the twelve months between June 2019 and June 2020. Lethal overdoses were up by 20%. Isolation, anxiet…
COVID-19 numbers show the pandemic has hit Black and Brown people hard. The coronavirus is about three times more likely to put African-American and Latino people in the hospital and they are twice as likely than whites to die from COVID. The reasons for this disparity are as old as they are complex. Inequities in health care are rooted in the hist…
Older people are the most vulnerable to COVID-19. That’s a challenge when people in their 60s, 70s and 80s are full time caretakers for grandkids. The opioid epidemic has made more than 2.5 million children nationally part of a ‘Grandfamiliy,’ a household headed by someone over 60. Social distancing isn’t an option when grandparents are tending to …
It’s been nearly a year since COVID-19 came into our lives. It’s changed everything and forced all of us to stop and reconsider how we live day to day. These considerations and adaptations are something the Us & Them team has carefully explored over the past year. The Story Collider podcast — a show that features people telling true personal storie…
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AR #104 - 6 Self-Care Practices & Rituals To Work With In 2021
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Working with regular self-care practices and rituals is a powerful way nurture yourself, connect in with your feelings and needs, and fill yourself up from within.These consistent rituals can support you in feeling grounded and clear and can serve as anchor points when you are feeling overwhelmed and out of alignment.Personally for me, working with…
The coronavirus has changed everything. People around the globe have spent nearly a year sheltering at home, adhering to restrictions and requirements to avoid the contagious COVID-19. Imagine what that experience is like for someone who’s homeless. If your only option for a warm bed is a group shelter, will you take it - or will you stay on the st…
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AR #103 - My 2021 Themes And Intentions & How To Experience Flow And Ease This Year
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In today’s episode, I am diving into my personal themes for 2021, my core guiding feelings and my intentions and desires for the year ahead. I also share how to navigate the energy of 2021 so you can experience flow and ease this year regardless of whether challenges present.While none of us know what 2021 will bring, in this episode I offer you gu…
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Kingwood March Exposed a Raw Seam of Rage
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2020 presented new levels of outrage over police killings of Black and Brown people in this nation. Police killed George Floyd and Breonna Taylor which prompted protests, marches and rallies to denounce racially motivated police brutality. A Black Lives Matter march in Kingwood, West Virginia set up a flash point for that tiny town. Black protestor…
2020 has required a lot from us all. It’s been a year of challenge and adaptation. Us & Them host Trey Kay recalls the line in a holiday classic “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” that says, “we’ll have to muddle through somehow.” None of us had any idea how much muddling 2020 would demand. We’ve faced the pandemic and its consequences and a …
This year has tested us in many ways. Restrictions and stay-at-home orders prevent people from sharing familiar traditions and worshiping together. Some say the coronavirus has tested their faith and beliefs. Not only do they mourn those who’ve died, they miss gathering with their congregations, whether it’s in a pew or kneeling on the floor for da…
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AR #102 - 7 Powerful Ways To Prepare For The New Year
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2021 is only a few weeks away, and so today I am sharing some powerful practices that you can use to prepare yourself for the new year.After all that 2020 has brought us, it is important that we take time to pause, reflect and fully integrate all of the lessons and learnings this year has delivered. So, in the episode today I share some rituals and…
2021 will offer us all some new beginnings. Political leaders take office with the prospect of a COVID vaccine on the horizon. However, millions of people are reeling from the economic consequences of the pandemic. Millions more are angry over the election outcome. How do we move our democracy forward? Our Us & Them virtual dinner party is back - t…
This is a season when many people turn to family, friends and food. As we enter the end-of-the-year holidays, group celebrations are discouraged to reduce COVID-19 infections. We are in uncertain times, dealing with many things that are out of our control. A contentious election and a global pandemic leave us divided and apart, while searching for …
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Forced Apart: Can Our Economy Rebound Without Reliable, Safe Child Care?
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The coronavirus has divided the world’s workforce into some new categories. White collar workers are remote employees who can do their jobs from home. Blue collar workers are often essential, front-line workers who must show up on the job to keep the supply chain and service industries moving. Essential medical workers keep our hospitals and clinic…
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AR #101 - How To Manifest Your Dreams & Desires While Staying In Your Feminine
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When we are working towards what we want, it is easy to become disconnected from our feminine energy. Instead, rely too heavily on our inner masculine energy and we end up feeling exhausted, over-worked and burdened.So in today’s episode, I share with you how to create and manifest your dreams and desires while staying connected to and embodied in …
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Us & Them: Let Us 'Bind Up The Nation's Wounds'
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The 2020 presidential election has offered a host of unexpected twists and turns. The candidate’s varied approaches to campaigning during a pandemic. The president’s own COVID diagnosis. The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and a fast confirmation process for her successor just before election day. A record number of citizens part…
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AR #100 - How I Called In A Healthy, Loving Relationship After 6 Years Of Being Single
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It is my 100th episode of Awaken Radio so I wanted to make this a special one, a personal one and a juicy one for you!In this episode, I am opening up to talk about my relationship journey and how I was able to call in a really healthy, committed, loving partnership after 6 years of being single.I unpack my journey of how I went from struggling in …
Keep politics away from the dinner table! This year’s contentious campaign season offers fresh reasons for that advice. But Us & Them host Trey Kay decided to host a virtual dinner party with guests whose politics reach across the divides. They came to the video chat potluck showing off some family favorite foods. The guests were ready to disagree …
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Us & Them: Working Man vs. The Political Machine
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The 2020 political campaigns are in high gear and the elections are just weeks away. This year, one West Virginia man watches from the sidelines, knowing what it’s like to put on a statewide campaign. Four years ago, Bo Copley was an unemployed miner who got the chance to ask then-candidate Hillary Clinton a question that resonated with many people…
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Forced Apart: An Ailing Economy -- Is Workforce Training The Cure?
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The coronavirus has created an economic nightmare. About a million jobs have disappeared in six months and more layoffs are likely this fall. In West Virginia, the pandemic doubled the state’s unemployment rate. That means 75,000 West Virginians are looking for work. Many of those searching for work are young people who’ve just graduated. How are e…
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Can a White Supremacist Alter Her DNA of Hate?
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Black and Brown people in America continue to die at the hands of police officers and that's created a season of hate. George Floyd’s killing ignited a sense of racial outrage that has spread around the world. U.S. cities continue to see protests against police brutality and riots over racial injustices. We’ll hear about a new podcast “Sounds Like …
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Forced Apart: The 'Delicate and Crazy Dance' of American Health Care
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The coronavirus confronts every aspect of our society - with our health care systems front and center in the crosshairs. When hospitals canceled nonessential medical procedures at the beginning of the pandemic, it created an economic free fall. U.S. hospitals have lost $200 billion dollars and laid off nearly a million workers. Urban hospitals and …
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AR #99 - Pull Yourself Out Of A Funk & Come Back Into Alignment
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With all that is unfolding this year, I wanted to jump on the podcast and talk about what to do when you fall into a funk - that space of feeling flat, out of alignment, uninspired, disconnected from what makes you feel good, or just kind of...meh.With many of our usual routines and ways of living being uprooted and changed this year, it is at time…
The race is on to develop a vaccination that can bring an end to the coronavirus pandemic. Researchers around the world are working on an immunization to slow or stop the outbreak. As that effort ramps up, there’s clear evidence that childhood vaccination rates for existing infectious diseases have plummeted. Parents and families have postponed or …
At the peak of the opioid crisis, drug companies sent 12 million hydrocodone pills to Kermit, West Virginia - a town of about 350 people. Cars would line up at the one pharmacy with people waiting to pick up pain pills. The so-called pain clinics of a decade ago are gone. In their place, a continued need for addiction treatment and recovery resourc…
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Forced Apart: Quarantine and the Danger of Eating Disorders
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COVID-19 forces big changes in our society and for our medical systems. When patients with mental health conditions are forced to stay at home isolated, the resulting social distancing can be particularly dangerous. Counselors and therapists are just learning how to use virtual care and teletherapy to support their patients. One group of disorders,…
Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the liberal wing of the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down a Louisiana abortion law. The narrow decision may be a relief to abortion rights supporters, but political watchers speculate the ruling could ignite voters in November. It may bring out those who favor a presidential candidate determined to curtail abor…
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AR #98 - Deep Healing, Inner Child Work & Resolving Triggers
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The energy of 2020 is inviting us to embark on a journey of collective and personal healing. So much is rising to the surface now for us to face, feel and resolve.In today's episode, I offer you tools and reflective questions to help you dig deep, do the inner work and get to the root cause of your problems.What I share will help you to resolve wha…
COVID-19 has forced millions to stay at home for months. Isolation can feed anxiety and depression and now tens of millions of Americans say that potent combination threatens their mental health. Calls to help centers and suicide hotlines are up in what some call a shadow pandemic. Nearly a quarter of Americans have applied for unemployment insuran…
Much of the recent work of our Us & Them team has focused on our day-to-day experience as we live through a global pandemic. But we need to shine our light on the deadly consequences of police brutality. Racial inequality is America’s most toxic “us and them” issue. George Floyd died from a Minneapolis police officer’s chokehold. Police officers in…
The coronavirus highlights many of our vulnerabilities, including the system we use to get food from the farm to the table. Lately, the pandemic has forced U.S. farmers to face the unthinkable. They plowed under perfectly good vegetables when schools and restaurants shut down and their market vanished. Livestock producers have euthanized hogs and c…
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Coronavirus Czar Says Pandemic is a Stress Test for WV Health Care
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It’s about 10 weeks since the coronavirus pandemic shut down much of the country, including West Virginia. While state officials are now reopening businesses, the pandemic is far from over. Seventy-eight West Virginians have died due to COVID-19. 250,000 unemployment claims have been filed. But the pandemic has exacted another toll — it’s fractured…
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Forced Apart: Same Pandemic, Unequal Education
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West Virginia’s 2020 school year, from kindergarten through college, is wrapping up unlike any other. In recent years, Mountain State communities have been devastated by man-made crises and natural disasters, but nothing has affected the state’s education system like a world-wide pandemic. The coronavirus forced an extended Spring Break in March th…
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The Legacy of the Upper Big Branch Disaster
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Ten years ago, the Upper Big Branch Mine exploded in West Virginia. 29 men died and an investigation uncovered that a legacy of overlooked safety measures contributed to the disaster. A new play called “Coal Country” focuses on the stories of the men and their families. It aims to put a spotlight on prejudice against the rural working class… to bri…
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Nurse Eva Travels to a COVID-19 Front Line
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The coronavirus pandemic prompts many reactions from people. Some people can be overwhelmed with fear and anxiety. Others step up to help where they can. U&T host Trey Kay splits his time living in West Virginia and New York. A few weeks ago, he got a message from someone trying to help Eva Crockett, a West Virginian traveling nurse looking to help…
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Forced Apart: A Virus Creates New Divides
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A global public health crisis in the form of an invisible virus, now officially divides us from each other. We’ve learned to call it ‘social distancing.’ But the coronavirus is creating or reopening many layers between us and them. There are divides between workers: some must show up while others work virtually and millions more have lost their job…
In many cities and towns, there are people in charge, and there are people who get things done. Joe Slack is an instigator for community change in West Virginia’s Upper Kanawha Valley. He sees the needs in his region, one that’s been hit hard by one economic disappointment after another. But Slack is a self-described squeaky wheel. He connects peop…
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AR #97 - Navigating Uncertainty With Surrender & Trust
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We are currently navigating a big period of collective uncertainty and unknown and for many of us, a lot of fear and anxiety has been rising.So, I wanted to come on the podcast today and offer you some tools, practices and guidance to help you in navigating the unknown and practising deeper levels of surrender, acceptance and trust.This current exp…
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Upriver Battle: Two Mayors Join Forces to Revive Their Rural Small Towns Against All Odds
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Appalachia is a unique region of the country. Its namesake mountain range boasts a tangle of thick forests where the economy has relied on forestry, manufacturing and mining for jobs. The Kanawha River winds through West Virginia upstream from Charleston and was once a hotbed of mining operations and chemical plants. But these prime economic movers…
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Without A Home Can You Be A Good Neighbor?
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Homelessness is one of the things that divides us in America. It’s an Us & Them issue that can spring from, and inform our views on other social topics. The number of homeless people nationally has dropped in the past decade, but there was an increase between 2017 and 2018. A West Virginia man saw a need and is trying to help. He owns and supports …
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AR #96 - Embrace And Embody More Of Your Feminine Essence
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In today's episode, I am sharing the audio from a recent Instagram live that I recorded, where I spoke about my journey of healing my relationship to my feminine energy and the practices that have supported me through this over the past 6 years.I open up and share about the big wake-up all I experienced which showed me just how much I was operating…
Chemical addictions and the opioid crisis have divided millions of U.S. families. An addicted parent can abandon responsibilities to their children. When a grandparent steps in to help, it creates a new kind of family structure. Some call it a grandfamily. Addictions can create a generational Us & Them divide in a household. It also spotlights unde…
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AR #95 - How To Find Clarity When You Feel Confused, Stuck & Overwhelmed
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Ever since the year began, I have personally been navigating some feelings of confusion, stuckness and overwhelm and I have been moving through a big process of finding clarity.Most of us tend to dislike these periods of feeling confused or unsure of what we want, and we feel like something has gone wrong.But what if periods of confusion were not a…
There are now more students of color at some universities and colleges in the U.S. In the past decade at Western Illinois University, the non-white student population nearly tripled to one-third of the enrollment. The change helped fill classrooms and satisfy the school’s mission. But it’s part of what pushed the school’s first African-American pre…
When we learn our history, we see things that reflect our past. Paintings of famous battles and statues of men who were heroes to some. But how we interpret our legacy changes. Time can warp our notion of a once righteous cause. There are examples around the world of ways we have edited our past. In the U.S., recent decisions to move Confederate mo…
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AR #94 - 2020 Themes: A Year Of Pleasure, Alignment, Conscious Living & Expansion
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Welcome to my first podcast episode of 2020! The transition into the new year has been big and many of us are feeling it. We can feel the intensity and power of 2020 already, and the key lessons and learnings that this year is here to teach us are flowing in thick and fast. In today's episode, I dive deep into exploring the collective energy themes…
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Indian Country Relocation: A One-way Ticket to Poverty
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North America’s early experiences with Us & Them come from our history with indigineous people. In the 19th century, a nascent U.S. government used treaties with Native tribes and nations to take land and resources. Those treaties relocated Native people to reservations. More than a century later, from 1950 - 1970, U.S. programs were still moving p…
Music can entertain and inspire, and it can be a path into another person’s world. On this episode, two different musicians with roots in Appalachia make music that spans the globe. Some of it carries a political message. One man takes his music to places where people struggle with war and disasters, as an offer of healing. The other uses his strin…
