Podcasts about wmmt's benny becker

Student teams from across the eastern Kentucky coalfields came together at the Knott County Sportsplex, bringing with them drones that they themselves had built. It was time for the climax of this year-long project supported by the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative (KVEC). The Ohio Valley has been a leader in aerospace engineering. Now there’s a growing possibility that the skill set of building drones could prepare students not just for college, but also for finding a good job close to home, and helping to grow a new industry in this region. WMMT's Benny Becker reports for the Ohio Valley ReSource.

In the first of our month-long series of Mountain Talks celebrating Black histories and futures in the region and beyond we explore the Appalachian African-American Cultural Center. Founder and Director Ron Carson led WMMT's Benny Becker on a tour of the Center in 2016. And, we hear a piece from the archive, produced for WMMT in 1992 by Maxine Kenny - which focuses on the life and music of Ron Carson's grandfather: Spike Carson.

Three years ago, the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative won a $30 million federal grant to support innovation and personalized learning in classrooms throughout eastern Kentucky.  “One of the groups that may not have benefited right away was the vocational school students,” KVEC Associate Director Dessie Bowling explained. To remedy that, in 2016 the cooperative funded three eastern Kentucky vocational schools to design and build tiny movable homes. The "Building It Forward" project gives students experience with a wide range of construction skills such as plumbing, wiring, carpentry, design, budgeting, heating and cooling to name a few. Bowling described the tiny house project as a way of making sure that the cooperative’s schools offer classes that are interesting and valuable to students, and provide them marketable skills whether or not they plan on going to college. The program is designed to be financially self-sustaining. Money from the sales of each house covers the costs of materials it takes to “build it forward” again the next year. WMMT's Benny Becker filed this report as part of the Ohio Valley Resource's Changing Course series on innovative practices in eastern Kentucky schools.  The series is supported by the Solutions Journalism Network.

This week on Mountain Talk we hear former head of the New York office of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Bob Stutman, speaking about the Opioid Epidemic in Rural America. Audio for this evening's program was recorded by WMMT's Benny Becker who attended Stutman's presentation to teachers at Letcher County Central High School on October 16, 2017. In his talk, Stutman discusses his experiences working for the DEA, and his perspective on the Opioid crisis.

In this episode, Dr. Edward Lee Petsonk, a professor of Medicine specializing in Pulmonary and Critical Care at West Virginia University and former leader of the NIOSH Black Lung Program, speaks on the proper diagnosis of black lung disease and navigating applying for related health benefits. In the second half, we revisit the award winning story produced by WMMT's Benny Becker for the Ohio Valley ReSource in collaboration with Howard Berkes of NPR about 38 year old Mackie Branham Jr. and his fight with the worst form of black lung disease.

-NPR's Howard Berkes delivers the final segment of his two part investigative reporting collaboration with WMMT's Benny Becker with the Ohio Valley ReSource on the resurgence of complicated black lung disease among miners in Central Appalachia. -West Virginia Public Broadcasting's Jessica Lily interviews Howard Berkes on the making of his newest radio series on black lung disease. -WMMT pays tribute to former West Virginia Democratic Congressman, Kenneth William Hechler who passed away on December 10th, 2016.

In this Mountain Talk Monday, WMMT's Benny Becker takes us to a special gathering at the Appalachian Media Institute's Boone Motor Building Youth Drop-In Center to hear the story of death row exoneree - Randy Steidl. Randy Steidl spent 17 years in Illinois prisons, including 12 on death row, before his exoneration in 2004. He was wrongly convicted and sentenced to die for the 1986 murders of Dyke and Karen Rhoads. But an Illinois State Police investigation in 2000 found that local police had severely botched their investigation, and that the case was riddled with political corruption that led all the way to the Illinois Governor’s office.

On Mountain Talk Monday, host Kelli Haywood talks with Shawn Lind, director of Mines to Minds. Sign up before Jan. 5 for Mines to Minds, a technology training program from SKCTC & Appalshop. Financial aid is available & after the short 16 week program, a tech job could be yours. The two Accelerated Certificate options include Systems Administration (IT Networking and Support) and Multimedia Design and Implementation (Designing, Creating, marketing, and branding using High Tech Creative Software tools and websites). And, hear the entire 3 Part collaboration of WMMT's Benny Becker for the Ohio Valley ReSource with NPR.