100 Days in Appalachia

Data Centers Are Now the Largest Financial Bet in US History

Today’s data center buildout will dwarf that amount, with $10 trillion in investment, and now have almost twice the economic ...
100 Days in Appalachia

Covering a New Tech Age in Appalachia

Council members in Oconee County, South Carolina interrogated Sheriff Mike Crenshaw at a wooden podium this past July. The sheriff had just given a presentation on an American startup company that ...
100 Days in Appalachia

‘Like Being Let Out of a Cage’: What the Pittston Strike Can Teach Us About Faith, Building Community and Democracy

Sept. 16, 1989, was a hot late-summer day in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Rev. Jim Sessions couldn’t sleep. He had a lot to be nervous about. The next morning, Sessions would drive two hours into the ...
100 Days in Appalachia

‘You Don’t Have to Look Far to Feel Connected to Her.’ At Knoxville’s Rhinestone Fest, Dolly Parton is a Reason to Celebrate.

Editor’s note: Shortly after the publication of this piece, Dolly Parton’s nephew Bryan Seaver shared a video statement announcing that the country music icon had died. “My family and I have shared a ...
100 Days in Appalachia

The first time I went to Muskingum Island was in 2024, before the work began.

Listen to the sounds of the island. On an unusually cool and dry morning in late July, I met Victor Elam, the Refuge Manager of the Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge, at a boat launch just ...
100 Days in Appalachia

As Federal Immigration Agents Descended on Minneapolis, Residents Deployed Mutual Aid to Protect Their Neighbors

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security deployed 3,000 federal immigration agents to Minneapolis and St. Paul in December 2025, under the name Operation Metro Surge. Previously, there were 190 agents ...
100 Days in Appalachia

In Virginia, People in Prison are Still Working For Pennies

Talib Muwahhid has a knack for woodworking, and over the years, he’s tinkered with a variety of different projects. “I was making things like little chess sets and storage boxes and stuff out of ...
100 Days in Appalachia

Are Data Centers the Next Frontier of Extraction in West Virginia?

Mingo County, West Virginia, was once thriving, but the coal industry’s decline left it one of the poorest counties in the US. Now, several data centers could be built in the region. Are data centers ...
100 Days in Appalachia

‘In the Boat Together’: Post-Helene, Faith Communities Have Been Central to NC’s Long-Term Recovery

In late September of last year, Tropical Storm Helene dumped up to 20 inches of water in parts of western North Carolina. In Ashe County, where Reverend Blake Smaar leads the congregation at West ...
100 Days in Appalachia

Five Years After It Became a National Park, There’s a Growing Divide In West Virginia’s New River Gorge

The New River Gorge is a jagged area in the middle of Southern West Virginia’s coalfields. Shaped by one of the oldest rivers in the world, whitewater rapids roll under its high petrified sandstone ...
100 Days in Appalachia

‘We Know What It’s Like To Be Exploited’: Tucker County, W.Va., Grapples With Future-Defining AI-Infrastructure Proposal

To fully appreciate the beauty of Tucker County, you must visit. Nestled at 3,500 feet in the gorgeous Allegheny Mountains along the Blackwater River, the town of Davis is at the highest elevation of ...
100 Days in Appalachia

W.Va. Opioid Settlement Funds are Supposed to Reverse Years of Crisis. In Several Counties, They’re Being Used to Pay Regional Jail Bills.

In rural Wyoming County, West Virginia, Ann Reed is the sheriff’s department’s only social worker. Funded through a temporary grant from a local mental health center, Reed provides resources and care ...