Children are often described as the future. But in many rural communities across America, the path to bringing a child into the world is getting longer — sometimes literally. Across the country, families are traveling farther and farther from home to deliver babies. Since the end of 2020, 124 rural hospitals have closed or announced plans to close their labor-and-delivery units — about two closures a month. As small hospitals struggle with rising costs and staffing shortages, obstetrics departments are often among the first services to disappear. In this encore episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay hears from families living with those changes — and explores what the loss of maternity care could mean for the future of rural towns and communities.

America’s overdose crisis keeps changing shape.

In recent years, provisional CDC data have shown a sharp national decline in overdose deaths — even as public officials warn the street drug supply remains volatile and some communities see signs of a rebound.

That uncertainty is also reshaping the recovery world — especially around opioids. Some people find abstinence-based recovery works best. Others rely on medication-assisted treatment (MAT), using prescribed medicine like methadone or buprenorphine to stabilize a person and reduce the risk of relapse. But MAT has long divided the recovery community, fueling a stigma around a deceptively simple question:

When is someone sober?

In this encore episode of Us & Them, Trey Kay visits the Clarksburg Mission in Clarksburg, West Virginia — a Christian-centered recovery facility where people pursue different paths toward sobriety — and where debates about medication, morality, and survival are never abstract.

The U.S. continues to struggle with racial discrimination and this episode of Us & Them looks back at a moment in the 1960s when music and race intersected. America’s popular music scene is a racially integrated space and there are times when it provides a place to heal the nation’s divides. Host Trey Kay shares a story about a band that took a stand against racism and the musicians who suffered the consequences. Kay heads to the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame to talk with West Virginia musicians of different generations as they talk about their experiences past and present in the local music scene and the way it reflects our divisions and unity.

For this encore episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay hears about the challenges to America’s incarcerated population as they re-enter society. At least 95% of all state prisoners are released after serving their sentence, more than 600,000 people each year. The re-entry process requires essential tasks; accessing identification materials, birth certificates and sometimes social security materials. How well do programs designed to help formerly incarcerated people succeed? Some people suggest recognizing past traumas may be a powerful step to help people make a new life after they serve their time. This encore episode of Us & Them received a best documentary award from the Public Media Journalists Association in 2023 and was acknowledged with a public service through journalism award from Virginia’s AP broadcasters.

In this encore episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay shares the story of a simple song written more than 250 years ago that now has a profound and universal legacy. John Newton wrote the hymn Amazing Grace to connect with Christians and over decades it’s been sung to a number of melodies. However, addition to its religious origins, it is now a popular folk song and an anthem for civil rights which transcends divisions and speaks to people across time and faiths about shared pain, hope and forgiveness. Newton’s creation may have been inspired by his past as a slave and captain of a slave ship. But today, Amazing Grace is a comforting song of redemption that helps many recover from dark times and see ahead to the light.

Many people know Thurgood Marshall as the first African American U.S. Supreme Court justice, however, first he had a long and distinguished career with the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. On this episode of Us & Them, Trey Kay hosts a community conversation highlighting Thurgood Marshall’s legacy and sharing excerpts from a new Maryland Public Television documentary “Becoming Thurgood: America’s Social Architect.” Marshall was the lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the 1954 Brown vs Board of Education case which declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. His work used the law as a tool for social change while dismantling institutional racism and inspiring social reforms.

As we count down to the end of 2025, Us & Them host Trey Kay looks back at the year’s whirlwind of actions and reactions. Each week presented fresh moves in the agenda President Donald Trump outlined during his campaign. First it was a reshaping of the federal government from Elon Musk’s efficiency department, which slashed budgets and agencies and workers. At the same time, additional resources for the Department of Homeland Security means a significant increase in the number of immigration arrests and detentions by federal agents. The use of National Guard troops in U.S. cities tests the limits of the president’s authority while those in the Mountain State mourn the death of a soldier shot in the nation’s capitol. We look at how one-time culture war talking points are reengineering America's defining institutions.

We’re an aging nation. Today 16% of Americans are over 65. In the next few decades that will double as the youngest Baby Boomers move into old age. But in West Virginia, that future is now. It’s the third oldest state in the nation and more than 20% of its residents are over 65. At the same time, West Virginia’s birth rate is low because young people are leaving. That generational imbalance will increase in coming years. The numbers show a growing crisis. Senior care has shifted from a nursing home model to one focused on aging in place. The cost of care is lower the longer people stay in their homes. That’s led to an explosion in home-based support and care services. But now, those companies can’t find the workers they need to provide services for the growing elderly population.