Middle of Everywhere is an award-winning podcast that illuminates rural life through characters, stories, and place. It provides a deep nostalgic connection to small communities by exploring aspects of rural life that are poignant, relatable and true. Episodes explore diverse perspectives and stories, and break down stereotypes that often burden rural and small town America. Our podcast aims to entertain and engage through storytelling, while teaching something new about small towns and the people who live here. Middle of Everywhere has won two awards from the Public Media Journalists Association for its episodes IM GOD and Black Overseer of a Confederate Monument.
A production from WKMS, as part of PRX’s Project Catapult with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Middle of Everywhere is a narrative podcast with episodes available for download on all podcast platforms.
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Today we follow this story from the fight the farmers started to save their little valley of heaven all the way to the Supreme Court and beyond. -
Today we meet some of the last people to live and play in this river valley before it was flooded, people who have been defined by the beauty of the remote landscape and their harrowing struggle to save it. -
What is the story behind silos that stick up out of the middle of a lake in the foothills of the Smokies? This is the first in a series in which we’ll follow a decades-long battle that took the river’s people all the way to the Supreme Court as they tried to save their way of life in the river valley. -
What things does a paddlewheel steamboat bring to your mind? Is a “roustabout” one of them? They may not be so familiar but there is a treasury of music surrounding the Black men and women who worked on steamboats in the last two centuries. -
Would you swim an entire river to find out how much plastic is in our waterways? Two scientists did just that. -
Can a river be a person? Under the law in some countries it can, and it has been proposed in the U.S. But why? And what does it mean? -
Can you separate your feelings about confederate monuments from historical facts? Find out how this Black historian does. -
This week, we hear the story of a father and son who are well known for their work with heirloom tomatoes and beans, maintaining a collection of over 1500 varieties. -
One woman saves a historic Black hotel, against all odds, from destruction... and saves herself in the process. -
We meet Adario Mercadante, a gay comedian who hails from Kentucky and redefines the image of who Kentuckians really are.
