Us & Them
Episodes
EXTRA: Red State Blue State, Ep.1
28 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
If you really listen, we sound like two different countries: Red America and Blue America. Then again, most of us aren't listening. As we head into th...
And Now... on the Radio!
27 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We’re excited to announce that West Virginia Public Broadcasting has invited Us & Them to be a regular part of their radio programming. Starting...
‘Us’ Music: a Conversation with Stephan Said
12 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Village Voice and Billboard Magazine have compared Stephan Said to Woody Guthrie because uses his music to bridge divides between people. He's tak...
Shack!
29 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The start of the football season has once again, seen players standing up, kneeling down or not showing up for the national anthem. Some see this as a...
Hillers and Creekers
15 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Americans tend to sort themselves into tribes that share similar culture, ideas and values. Trey recalls kids at his West Virginia high school sorting...
The Church Lady
01 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Are America’s schools hostile to religion? There’s been a tussle over this issue since the early 60s, when the Supreme Court ruled that prayer and...
Gentrification (or that Kumbaya moment)
18 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Things have changed in the old neighborhood. There are cool little restaurants and cafes, funky little shops and a vibrant art and music scene. On one...
The Elephant in the Classroom
04 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Hey, it’s Independence Day - the official birth of our nation! Watching fireworks on July 4th may be as close as some of us get to expressing a shar...
Housing in Paradise
21 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Places like Lake Tahoe, Nantucket and Colorado ski country are playgrounds for the wealthy. To make the playground run smoothly, there’s a dire need...
Revisiting the Grand Palace
06 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Trey Kay has observed how things have changed significantly for LGBTQ people where he lives in New York. But he’s not sure if anything’s changed i...
Love, the Ayatollah, and Revolution
23 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
America and Iran used to be close allies, but since the Iranian Revolution began in 1979, the relationship has been akin to a bad divorce. After Presi...
Touching the Third Rail with Katharine Hayhoe
09 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In today’s culturally polarized society, discussing whether the planet is warming and if humans have an impact on the climate is a topic that’s of...
Heroin: N'ganga Dimitri
25 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
As the United States works through what the American Medical Association describes as “the worst drug addiction epidemic in its history,” we revis...
Under the Microscope: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
11 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Back in 2015, we aired an episode called “Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is” that didn’t go over so well with a bunch of our listeners. We rece...
EXTRA CUTS: My Friend From Camp
05 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
As promised, we are posting some additional segments from our last episode, My Friend From Camp that we just couldn’t fit in. If you haven’t heard...
My Friend From Camp
29 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Moazzam Begg, a British citizen of Pakistani heritage, and Albert Melise, a former housing police officer in the Boston area, were unlikely to have th...
A Suburb of Hell
15 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For a little more than a century, there’s been at least one concentration camp somewhere on earth. The fact that camps still exist and that humans c...
The Black Talk
28 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How old were you when you first learned that police may think of you as a threat? You’ve never been told that? Chances are you’re not African Am...
The "Talk"
14 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Despite all the fuss about sex education in America, students get precious little of it. Jonathan Zimmerman, an education historian, tells Trey how Am...
Trapped on the Turnpike
01 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On Friday, January 22nd, 2016, I was in New York City preparing to head to West Virginia. So was a blizzard called Jonas. The blizzard that took the E...
Panhandlers: To Give Or Not to Give?
17 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What do you do when a panhandler hits you up for some money? Whatever your answer is, what experiences or facts inform your policy for giving or not g...
A New Year, A Reprise, Amazing Grace
04 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Everyone knows the song "Amazing Grace." People who don’t even consider themselves spiritual or religious find it meaningful. And while John Newton ...
Feminism Is The Word
21 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Merriam-Webster declared that the word for 2017 is 'feminism.' The term was the most-looked-up on their online dictionary, and there were 70% more sea...
His Name's DJ
07 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
We revisit the story of “Steve,” a young New Hampshire man that we met back in the spring of 2016. In our episode called “The Changing Face of H...
Killing James Means
20 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
On November 21, 2016, William Pulliam, a 62-year-old white man, shot James Means, a 15-year-old African-American boy, after the two had an argument ou...
The Church Lady
08 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Trey speaks with journalist Linda K. Wertheimer, the author of Faith Ed: Teaching About Religion In an Age of Intolerance. In her book, she has a chap...
Community and Cops Talking Across the Divide
25 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
High-profile confrontations between African-Americans and police officers have fueled tensions across the country. West Virginia is NOT a place where ...
A Policeman is a Person in Your Neighborhood, In Your Neighborhood, In Your Neigh-bor-hoo-ood!
12 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Errol Randle is a cop in Charleston, WV. He thinks police have to do more than arrest bad guys: they should also help fix struggling communities. He c...
Shack! - A Civil Rights Story
27 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
At a time when the President of the United States questions the patriotism of African American football players protesting social injustice, we presen...
Two Tales of Coal
12 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Like many from his state, Trey was weaned on the jingle “Coal is West Virginia!” For this episode, we meet two West Virginians who see the mini...
Hillers & Creekers!
23 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Americans tend to sort themselves into tribes that share similar culture, ideas and values. Trey recalls kids at his West Virginia high school sorting...
Confederate Reckoning: When Will The Civil War End?
17 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The tragedy in Charlottesville, VA makes us wonder if it’s possible to reconcile different versions of history. This episode features two American f...
Remembering New Math & Common Core
03 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
When conservatives and liberals fight about school curriculum, the disagreements aren’t just about science and history. Even math has been a battleg...
Deanna, Tymel & Amarie
18 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Deanna McKinney’s been through one of the hardest things a parent can endure. Her teenage son was gunned down on her front porch by a kid looking to...
Amazing Grace
01 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Everyone knows the song. People who don’t consider themselves spiritual or religious find it meaningful. John Newton penned the hymn to connect with...
Sodomy, Stonewall & Pride
19 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Not that long ago, you could get locked up for being gay. A West Virginia man tells Trey about being sent to a mental institution for violating sodomy...
The Elephant in the (Class) Room: How I Survived Iraq and Vassar College
01 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
After four years of commanding a tank in Iraq, David Carrell, a Republican from Texas, had the opportunity to study at a liberal college in the northe...
Gentrification: That Kumbayah Moment
20 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
When a neighborhood transforms, newcomers can feel unwelcome, while longtime residents feel threatened. But is there a sweet spot when everyone in the...
What I Learned About Empathy from a Textbook
24 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Empathy... it's a word we've heard a lot in the past year. But what is it? And do we need it? Trey explains what he learned about empathy from... a te...
Reasserting Femme Voice
05 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
North Carolina repealed its notorious bathroom law, but not necessarily for the better. Transsexuals remain outside NC’s equal protection laws—whe...
Love, the Ayatollah & Revolution
15 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Essi and Katie fell in love before the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution and growing antipathy between America and Ayatollah Khomeini. Despite many f...
Coming Out of the Closet
25 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Where some Trump supporters have been loud and proud, others have remained in the shadows. With the new boss installed, it’s “olly olly in come fr...
Serious as a Heart Attack
14 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
An Us and Them conversation turns ugly and Trey loses it. He becomes concerned about with his physical, mental and spiritual health.
Taking an Ass Whoopin’
15 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The 2016 presidential campaign was one of the most brutal in America’s history. Trey was stunned by the outcome and is trying understand what the wh...
Hello Mary Lou...
21 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Mary Lou Bruner, who made headlines with her wild accusations about President Obama, is running for Texas State Board of Education. If elected, she’...
The Changing Face of Heroin
26 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Something has shifted in the way our society thinks and talks about heroin addicts these days. Could it be that smack users seem more like ‘us’ an...
Heroin I - N'ganga Dimitri
22 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Dimitri Mugianis has an undying love for drug addicts. He's a former junkie who's been clean for a decade. Now he feels a calling to help other addi...
Femme Voice
29 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Anne Kelly always felt like she was born into the wrong body. She began life as a man, but is now transitioning into a woman. She’s got the looking ...
Shack!
05 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In 1969, James “Shack” Harris became the first African American quarterback to break the color line in the NFL.
Trapped on the Turnpike
03 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
How 27 hours of being snow-bound on the Pennsylvania Turnpike helps Trey file a report to the Keystone State’s “Office of Lessons Learned.”
The Refugee Trail with Scott Carrier
17 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Veteran journalist – or “cultural anthropologist” – Scott Carrier speaks with people fleeing war-torn Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other count...
War on Christmas…Really?
21 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Some feel there’s an attack on this sacred holiday. Others are bothered that this religious holiday has blurred America’s church/state separation....
Islamophobia
10 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
With acts of terrorism in Paris and San Bernardino, some Americans are suspicious of Muslim neighbors and immigrants. Warranted fear or paranoia?
Atheism
19 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Would Americans vote for an atheist president? A recent poll says no way. In this episode, a social psychologist tells us why this might be.
Enemies
06 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Jesus said, “Love your enemies." Today’s politicians ask God to bless America, but in the same breath, they call their political opponents "enemi...
Locked Up For Sodomy
15 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Not that long ago, you could get locked up for being gay. A West Virginia man tells Trey about being sent to a mental institution for violating the st...
A Confederate Reckoning
03 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Can we reconcile different versions of history? Two American foreign correspondents of color fly from Kenya to Louisiana to report on an unfinished ci...
Strangers With Cameras In Appalachia
17 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
A recent photo essay depicting Appalachians has stirred controversy in that region. Some locals feel violated when outsiders come into their communi...
New Math
01 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
When conservatives and liberals fight about school curriculum, the disagreements aren't just about science and history. Even math has been a battlegro...
Textbook Watchdogs
16 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Lots of American school districts have fierce fights over what kids should learn in school, but nobody fights like Texans. And no citizens have had a ...
The Church Lady
31 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The Supreme Court says you can't have organized prayer in public schools. But most Americans don't agree with that call -- and some people are still f...
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
15 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Two men with strong opinions about evolution and climate change are willing to lay their money on the line.
In Dixieland, I'll Take My Stand
26 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The Condederate flag and the song "Dixie" -- two enduring Old South icons that make us wonder if the war ever ended.
Sex Ed for Grown-ups
15 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The chair of the University of Minnesota's program for Sexual Health Education tells Trey most sexual health instruction focuses on adolescents and th...
The Talk
01 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Despite all the fuss about sex education in America, students get precious little of it. Jonathan Zimmerman, an education historian, tells Trey how ...
To Give or Not to Give
15 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
If you give money to panhandlers, are you helping them or hurting them? And do they really need help? People have strong opinions. We try to separate ...
Revisiting the Grand Palace
01 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Americans' attitudes toward gay relationships have changed dramatically in a short time. Trey Kay returns to his home state of West Virginia to see ho...
The Great Textbook War
01 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In 1974, Kanawha County West Virginia was an early battleground in the American culture wars. The fight focused on what children should learn in schoo...
Marrying Gays When It Wasn't Cool - Rev. Jim Lewis
01 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Decades before same-sex marriage became legal, the Reverend Jim Lewis of Charleston, West Virginia sparked outrage by blessing the unions of gay men a...
Trey & Alice
01 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
A blue state secular liberal and a red state conservative Christian have an unlikely friendship. And a slug burger.