Our country’s divides often reveal themselves in our choices and habits, including how and where we get our information. As the economics of the media landscape have imploded, the economics of the industry have forced changes. In the past two decades, online sites have taken over much of the income stream from classified ads and general advertising. Many local news outlets have gone out of business and there are now more than 200 counties across the country with no source of local news, communities often referred to as news deserts. One of those news deserts is McDowell County in West Virginia. Last year, publisher Missy Nester was forced to shut down the Welch Daily News after a valiant effort to keep the paper running. Join host Trey Kay and reporter Todd Melby on this episode of Us & Them to see what happens when local news organizations stop telling the stories of a community.

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 .

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling just out upholds a state ban on gender affirming care for transgender minors. The Tennessee case will likely bolster efforts by conservative state lawmakers to regulate care for transgender Americans. It’s the most recent effort in the culture war over gender identity and LGBTQ rights. On this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay hears about the fallout from this social and political battle for transgender people in West Virginia. Kay also talks with people shaping the debate over transgender rights. LGBTQ allies say the legal and legislative efforts deny trans people the right to declare their own gender identity, while some conservative policy makers say transgender women are erasing women’s rights; from privacy in the bathroom to athletic competition. The transgender population, estimated at less than one percent of America, is a social lightening rod of our culture wars.

State borders are the new front lines in the nation’s abortion battle. On this encore episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay looks at the evolving geography of abortion. Since a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturned federal abortion rights, 21 states have either banned or restricted abortion access, including West Virginia. Meanwhile, West Virginia’s neighbor, Maryland, is one of 22 states that are protecting abortion rights and expanding access. Kay follows the decision of Women’s Health Center of West Virginia to move its abortion services from Charleston to a new clinic just over the border near Cumberland, Maryland. The move was intentional because Western Maryland, like West Virginia, is a so-called abortion desert. The two regions have some deep political and cultural similarities. Western Maryland Republicans say they feel ignored by the overwhelmingly liberal, Democratic legislature in Annapolis. They say the new abortion clinic is not wanted or needed in their part of Maryland, and they blame the clinic’s presence on the fallout from Roe v. Wade’s defeat. This Us & Them episode was recently honored by the Virginias Associated Press Broadcasters as Best Podcast of 2024.