Blue Ridge Job Corps Admissions Manager Heather Goodpasture continues to defy instructions to keep quiet and provides updates on Department of Labor orders to shut down the Job Corps. The shut down is under a restraining order, due in part because of the public backlash, and is set for a hearing on June 17 in a federal court. The decision will affect nearly 100 Job Corps programs nationwide.

This interview contains part of a previous interview that details the mission of the program for educating and training at-risk students.

At this writing, the website for the Job Corps remains active.

https://blueridge.jobcorps.gov/

Heather Goodpasture, Admissions Manager of Marion, Virginia's Blue Ridge Job Corps has gotten notice that she is losing her job and that 90 students at the Job Corps will be turned out of their living quarters. Goodpasture is ignoring instructions not to speak to the media and wants people to know the benefits of the program to individual students and to the community.

IN 2023, Southwest Virginia author Barbara Kingsolver won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel Demon Copperhead. In this interview, you'll hear how the title character reflects the challenges of drug addiction in his family and in his own life. The boy is loveable and resilient with a grand dream to see the ocean.

Barbara talks about how many of the region's challenges were pressed upon the area by external forces and reminds us that addiction is a disease -- and not a moral failing. And she announces her plan for giving back to Lee County and addressing a need that , had it been met in the world of fiction, could have changed the trajectory of Demon Copperhead's life. Details here: https://hgwrr.org/

How is Barbara using the power of writing in the face of today's challenges to education and health care? What are her plans for another book? A movie? And what's the latest with her family?

Long-time U.S. resident Dr. Philip Farah is member of the Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace and was a speaker at the United Nations just before this interview aired on May 21, 2025. Farah is a Christian who has lived in the West Bank and who has relatives in Gaza who have been killed in the Israeli-Gaza War. His Palestinian parents were displaced from their home in the establishment of Israel after World War II. He shares his view of the war in Gaza as a genocide and describes some of his family's experiences in the Israeli occupation of Palestine. In the midst of the horrors of the war, he finds reasons for hope.

Susan Lachman has been presenting the radio show "Women on Air" for 38 years.

In this interview, she details the first idea of the show and talks about its growth, leading to its current airing of five hours per week.

The show can be heard on WEHC-FM, 90.7 and WISE-FM, 90.5 on Wednesdays at 3:00 and Fridays on 6:00 in Southwest Virginia.

On WETS-FM, 89.5 in Johnson City, TN, the show airs on Saturday nights at 10:00 p.m. and is also presented on WETS's HD-2 channel on Sundays at both 7:00 p.m. and at midnight.

Lachman talks about moving interview moments and her commitment to women artists.

Emory & Henry History Professor is leaving his position to start a new life in Egypt. Why? We'll find out in this episode of This Conversation.

This week's conversation is a lively conversation with Monica Hoel -- an Emory & Henry legend who is retiring after 40 years as a staff member at the University.

Until April 30, Monica is the Alumni Director. She has hosted her radio show, The Duckpond Wall for many years. She reviews some of the highlights of her career and of her radio show.

The news producer does not show up in front of the camera, but does have great power of the newscast: what stories are covered... the order they appear...the graphics... the use of video...what the anchors say...and the way reporters approach the story they're covering.

News Producer Aaron Taylor works for CBS affiliate WJHL-TV in Johnson City and shares insights into the busy, behind-the-scene work in the newsroom.