This Appalachian Life: Learning to surf

Living in the oldest mountain range in the world, it’s easy to feel as if living in Appalachia is to live in an entirely different world than everyone else. The paradox is that this is both fiction and reality. The people of Appalachia live the same experiences of everyone else on the planet, and yet they also tread down paths that only exist here, literally and metaphorically. “This Appalachian Life” aims to examine that paradox, looking deeper into the people, ideas and stories born from the region and the ones that find themselves stumbling upon it.

Sully Styles and Trenton Rose

October 23, 2024

Sully Styles and Gabe Plitt

When Chris Patti was a kid growing up in Laguna Beach, California, Appalachian State University was the last place he thought he’d end up, for many reasons. The first of these reasons is that he’d never even heard of it. The second is he couldn’t get away from education fast enough. Fast forward to 2013, Patti is graduating with his PhD from the University of South Florida and looking for a job as a professor. This would lead him to the Appalachian Mountains, where some of his life’s most important events would take place.

When we came to App State, we didn’t know just how much Dr. Patti would change our lives for the better, either. This episode partly involves our own struggles with academia and mental health, and how Dr. Patti has helped us get through it. This is the story of how Dr. Patti got here, where he’s been and where we should all be going next.

If you enjoyed the episode and want more of Dr. Patti, shoot him an email at ⁠patticj@appstate.edu⁠ to get access to the articles we mentioned in the episode. Dr. Patti would especially love it if people read his work with Holocaust survivor Sal Wainberg in the article “Sharing a Big Kettle of Soup: Compassionate Listening With A Holocaust Survivor.”

If you liked the songs from Dr. Patti and Phil Allen’s collaboration “Mr. Radar,” you can check those out ⁠here⁠.

**Small correction: At minute 31:43, Dr. Patti mentions a book by Stephen King called “On Reading.” The title of the book is actually “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft” by Stephen King.

Hosted by: Sully Styles and Trenton Rose

Produced by: Sully Styles and Trenton Rose

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