A life-story podcast from Appalachia
The Porchlight Archive
Every life is history.
Long, unhurried conversations with the people who lived it: miners and farmers, teachers and preachers, veterans, grandmothers, and neighbors. Their stories are recorded and kept so they're never lost.
The Archive
Every conversation, kept in one place.
Why we sit on the porch
When someone passes, a whole library goes with them. The Porchlight Archive exists to save those libraries.
Every episode is one person telling their own story, start to finish, in their own words. We don't rush it, and we don't chase headlines. We ask where they grew up, what they achieved, what they lost, what they laughed about, and what they want their grandchildren to know.
Most of our guests come from the hollers and small towns of Appalachia, but a good story is welcome from anywhere. We pay special attention to the older generation, because their memories are history, and history should be written down while there's still time.
— Damian Vance, host
Long-form
Conversations run as long as the story needs. Nothing gets squeezed into a soundbite.
Preserved
Every interview is kept in full as a record for families, communities, and future historians.
Rooted
Centered on Appalachia: its work, its faith, its music, and its hard times and good ones.
Honest
Real people telling it like it was, with nothing staged or scripted.
Sitting down with us
If you've been asked to be a guest, or you're thinking about it, here's what to expect.
We talk first
A short phone call to get to know you, answer your questions, and set a time and place that suits you.
Your place or ours
We'll come to you, whether that's your kitchen table or your front porch, or you can sit down with us in our studio. Whatever feels most comfortable.
You tell your story
No script and no rush. We just talk. Most conversations run a couple of hours.
You see it first
You get to watch your finished episode before it's released to the public.
Know someone with a story worth keeping?
A grandparent, a neighbor, an old coal miner, the lady who ran the general store for forty years. Tell us about them, and we may come sit on their porch.
Nominate a storytellerSend us their name, where they live, and a few lines about their story: