Us & Them

America’s housing shortage continues to put affordable homes out of reach for people across the country — from small towns to big cities. While West Virginia has the nation’s highest level of homeownership overall, many residents still struggle to find something that works for their budget. In fact, nearly 140,000 West Virginians spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs. In this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay looks at the squeeze in two places—Philadelphia and southern West Virginia—finding that while inventory has improved, costs remain well above pre-pandemic levels and even manufactured homes, once an entry point for many, are slipping out of reach.

This episode first aired in 2023, focusing on the strategies to motivate young voters and we’re sharing it again in the wake of the Sept. 10, 2025, assassination of Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA.  Kirk, a renowned conservative youth organizer, was shot and killed during a campus event at Utah Valley University. Nothing divides Americans like politics — but young voters continue to matter. Host Trey Kay talks with journalist Kyle Spencer, whose book Raising Them Right traces how conservative organizers spent years building a youth movement on campuses. Spencer says the growth was strategic and well funded. Money can organize power, she notes, though it doesn’t force a single, uniform ideology on young people. Kay also talks with Abby Kiesa of Tufts University’s Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), who explains how youth participation has shifted in the Trump era and why a deeper problem persists: the political system still struggles to turn young people’s  political interest into sustained turnout. Revisiting this Us & Them episode in the wake of Kirk’s death offers context for how campus-based organizing — and reactions to it — have shaped youth politics today.

As the United States prepares to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, attention is focused on the relevance of the American Revolution to our country today. The new episode of Us & Them spotlights a recent community event at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, W.Va  with host Trey Kay and three top historians to talk about the realities of our revolutionary past. Ken Burns’ upcoming PBS series The American Revolution shines a light on the war that transformed 13 colonies into a nation. This timely episode of Us & Them revisits America’s origin story with fresh eyes, probing what we remember, what we forget, and why it matters now.

Just as America faces some of its most critical political divides, our criminal justice system suffers from a lack of public trust. How are these dual crises interwoven?  In this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay talks with legal scholar David Sklansky, a Stanford professor who co-directs the school’s Criminal Justice Center. In his new book “Criminal Justice in Divided America,” Sklansky says reforming the nation’s justice system may be at the core of recovering our democracy.  In fact, he says there are clear approaches and solutions to help reform what’s broken and that even the basic concept of the jury trial can re-educate us in the skills and habits required to work across differences in a pluralistic democracy.  In the end, Sklansky says the criminal justice system is one of the few places where Americans of varying beliefs and persuasions engage with each other to make important decisions. 

Every day, 10,000 people turn 65 as America’s Baby Boom generation ages. By 2040, the number of people 85 or older will more than double and the need for caregivers will grow dramatically. In this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay moderates a community conversation focused on some of the unique caregiving needs in West Virginia where nearly 21% of the population is over 65. We’ll also hear excerpts from a recently released PBS documentary called Caregiving from producer Bradley Cooper. With the potential for Medicaid cuts over the next decade, access to caregiving programs may be a challenge especially for rural regions. 

Every week across the U.S. more than two newspapers go out of business. In the past two decades more than 3,000 papers have shut down operations. That’s left more than 1,500 counties so-called news deserts. Forty-three of West Virginia’s 55 counties have just one local news source and that limited access gives the state a ranking of 46th out of all 50 states. Studies show when local news sources vanish, the result is a drop in community participation on many levels. On the next episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay visits some regional news deserts to talk about the way local news organizations help a community see and define itself. Some say local coverage is the glue that brings a place together and in Putnam County the Hurricane Breeze continues to offer essential local news while in Greenbrier County, a startup is working to bring back that voice. 

The perception of crime in our nation shows an enormous divide. One recent poll reports 90% of Republicans say crime is up while 60% of Democrats say crime is down. The result has been a wave of ‘tough on crime’ laws from states across the political spectrum that expand the definition of violent crimes and their penalties. The 2024 Safer Kentucky Act is one of those omnibus crime bills that some say casts too wide a net. In this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay looks at the history of America’s crime laws to check on provisions that are back - like the so-called Three Strikes law that’s part of Kentucky’s crime bill. In the 1990s, they addressed violent drug crimes, however over the decades the costs of incarcerating more and more people became too big a burden.

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.

During his first months in office, President Donald Trump has issued about 150 executive orders and is taking action on the very issues he promised during the campaign. There’ve been dramatic changes in immigration in the form of mass deportations despite concerns over a lack of due process. The administration continues to make good on moves to cut the federal workforce, government agencies and a variety of government-funded organizations. And nearly every day there’s economic news about Trump’s reciprocal tariffs with countries around the world and the impact on the global economy. With all of this to digest, it’s time for another Us & Them dinner party as host Trey Kay brings together guests of varying political persuasions to share a potluck meal and their views on President Trump’s first 100 days in office. 

For this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay celebrates the tenth anniversary of the podcast with the young members of Marshall University’s Dead Podcasters Society, a club that is dedicated to artistic expression and following one’s passions, much like the fictional group in the 1989 film Dead Poets Society.  The event becomes a master class on podcasts, the intimate form of audio storytelling that has hooked hundreds of millions of listeners around the world. Kay talks with students about how he encourages people to tell him their stories and about a lifetime spent forming connections with people who hold views that are very different from his own. He also gets inducted into the Dead Podcasters Society in a ceremony that involves a sword and a vow to “seize the sound.”

For decades, polls have shown most Americans believe equal opportunity in the workplace is beneficial and laws like the 1964 Civil Rights Act worked to achieve that goal. More recently, the effort has included voluntary diversity, equity and inclusion programs - known as DEI. On this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay looks at changing social and political sentiment that’s prompted efforts to dismantle the nation’s DEI programs. President Trump’s executive orders require government agencies and private businesses to stop the programs calling them illegal and immoral discrimination. State lawmakers are taking a cue from Washington and so far more than 30 states have considered or are looking at anti-DEI legislation, with half having already passed such laws. While some people say diversity programs provide positive societal change and are positive for a business’s bottom line, a growing percentage say the efforts are discriminatory practices that can lower employment standards and do not improve productivity or efficiency in the workplace. 

Us & Them: Daniel Johnston — The Troubled Life And Artistic Genius Of West Virginia Music Hall Of Fame Inductee

Reality is more challenging now for people who live at the intersection between substance use disorder, homelessness and the criminal justice system. New laws across the nation echo aspects of the 2024 Safer Kentucky Act, which enhance penalties for violent crimes, drug crimes, shoplifting and carjacking, as well as a ban on public camping. On this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay returns to Kentucky to check on the consequences of the new tough-on-crime law. In cities, the demand for longterm and transitional housing remains acute, while in small town Appalachia the access to any social safety net can be far, far away.

Many Americans assume the U.S. Constitution guarantees men and women equal rights. But the authors of the Constitution did not consider women as part of ‘We the people.’ In fact, the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment provides far fewer protections for gender as a protected category than it does for race, religion or national origin. In this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay hears from author Jill Hasday, a law professor at the University of Minnesota whose new book “We the Men” lays out an unfinished agenda for women’s equality. Hasday says women are systematically forgotten in America’s most important stories about itself and there are important symbolic and emotional consequences from that exclusion. 

The Trump administration’s efforts to cut federal spending is targeting a broad range of departments and agencies including the low-income health care program Medicaid. Republican lawmakers want work requirements in place for eligibility. But the scope of Medicaid programs goes beyond direct health care. Many people rely on Medicaid for treatment of substance use disorder and drug addiction. West Virginia has the nation's highest overdose numbers and the rate for African American people exceeds any other group. In this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay learns how Medicaid money supports the organizations that work in recovery and what that work looks like.

Home ownership in America is one of the most common ways to build wealth for future generations. But in Appalachia, West Virginia presents the complexities and nuances of that reality. The Mountain State has the nation’s highest homeownership rate but the second lowest personal income rate. And there’s another reality at work. Much of that housing is old and needs repair. In one West Virginia county, 67 percent of the homes are more than 80 years old and half rate below normal on standard quality measures. One estimate shows there are 500,000 people living in such conditions. This is a side of the housing crisis we don't often hear -- structures in disrepair without electricity, or running water, that people call home. 

There’s a fresh slate of legislative agendas in the new year and some include efforts to chip away at reproductive rights and access to abortion, even in states that have recently passed constitutional abortion rights ballot measures. On this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay looks at what’s ahead after a record number of initiatives passed in November. There’s a lot that conservative legislatures and courts can do to limit the voter-approved amendments. While legal maneuvering continues, the number of abortions in the U.S. is at its highest level in more than a decade thanks to the increased use of abortion pills and travel across state lines. Abortion opponents want President Donald Trump to enforce a 19th Century law they say will stop abortion pills through the mail. Meanwhile, abortion-friendly states are using shield laws to protect their telehealth abortion providers from criminal prosecution for providing abortion pills to women in states with bans. The U.S.’s inconsistent abortion laws are pitting states against each other, and state governments against their citizens. 

With the start of 2025, legislators in some states are determined to pass even tighter abortion restrictions. In the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe versus Wade, more than 40 states have passed abortion bans - some with very limited exceptions. Abortion rights advocates are equally determined to expand  access to reproductive care — and some are looking at the lessons learned from half a century ago, before there was a right to legal abortion. On the next episode of Us & Them host Trey Kay hears from people who took on that work decades ago. We hear from supporters of reproductive rights who are ready for a new era of advocacy, while anti abortion advocates encourage a new Republican power center in Congress to tightly regulate medications and enact a federal abortion ban.