The Ballad and the Flood

Outside/In

NHPR

Society & Culture, Documentary, Natural Sciences, Nature, Science

4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2024

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In Appalachia, Hurricane Helene was a thousand-year-flood. It flattened towns and forests, washed roads away, and killed hundreds. But this story is not about the flood. It’s about what happened after. A month after Hurricane Helene, our producer Justine Paradis visited Marshall, a tiny town in the Black Mountains of western North Carolina, a region renowned for its biodiversity, music, and art. She went to see what it really looks like on the ground in the wake of a disaster, and how people create systems to help each other. But what she found there wasn’t just a model of mutual aid: it was a glimpse of another way to live with one another. Featuring Josh Copus, Becca Nicholson, Rachel Bennett, Steve Matlack, Keith Majeroni, and Ian Montgomery. Appearances by Meredith Silver, Anna Thompson, Kenneth Satterfield, Reid Creswell, Jim Purkerson, Jazz Maltz, Melanie Risch, and Alexandra Barao. Songs performed by Sheila Kay Adams, Analo Phillips, Leah Song and Chloe Smith of Rising Appalachia, and William Ritter. LINKS An excerpt of “A Paradise Built in Hell” by Rebecca Solnit (quoted in this episode) is available on Lithub. “You know our systems are broke when 5 gay DJs can bring 10k of supplies back before the national guard does.” (Them) The folks behind the Instagram account @photosfromhelene find, clean, and share lost hurricane photos, aiming to reunite the hurricane survivors with their photo memories. A great essay on mutual aid by Jia Tolentino (The New Yorker) CREDITS Outside/In host: Nate Hegyi Reported, written, produced, and mixed by Justine Paradis Edited by Taylor Quimby Our team also includes Felix Poon, Marina Henke, and Kate Dario. NHPR’s Director of Podcasts is Rebecca Lavoie Special thanks to Poder Emma and Collaborativa La Milpa in Asheville. Thanks also to Rural Organizing and Resilience (ROAR). Music by Doctor Turtle, Guustavv, Blue Dot Sessions, Cody High, and Silver Maple. Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Do you want to support our show and get a chance to win a trip to anywhere in the world?
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0:29.7	Newsroom. You can find a link to get tickets in our show notes or at outsideinrad radio.org.
0:46.7	There is an old saying about the town of Marshall, North Carolina.
0:52.0	It's one mile long, one street wide, sky high, and hell deep.
1:01.2	It's nestled in the Black Mountains of Southern Appalachia.
1:06.8	It's got a couple of cafes, a flower shop, a courthouse, and an old jail.
1:11.7	In 2016, I, like, pushed all my chips in on Marshall.
1:14.7	This is artist and entrepreneur Josh Copus.
1:22.5	I bought a house out here, and I bought the old Madison County Jail at a property auction with three friends for under $100,000 bucks,
1:29.5	and it was the craziest thing that I've ever done.
1:35.0	The jail was exactly what you'd imagine.
1:37.9	Metal bars, peeling paint, and a whole lot of history.
1:42.0	There was even a local guy who escaped out of the roof in the 1990s.
1:46.1	Yeah, Omar Lee Smith went through the roof in this room that we're sitting in right now.
1:51.3	I actually found his hacksaw blades in the attic during the Renno and called him up and said,
1:58.5	hey, dude, come down here. I got something I think you want to see.
2:02.4	And he said, where'd you find them? And I said, they were in the attic. And he just said, that's right where I left
2:08.9	him. Josh and his friends spent five years refurbishing the place. Now, it's a boutique hotel and a
	...

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