This story was written by Laurie Herlich for the August 2025 Radio Show.

StoryTown Radio Show: The Old College Try

Real stories, real people. This storytelling program is filled with true-life adventures of people past and present from Jonesborough, Tennessee, and the surrounding Southern Appalachian Region. Each program presents stories built around a common theme. All of these stories, which are collected from the hills and hollers, and sometimes up in the Mountains of East Tennessee, are scripted into a show that explores the culture, heritage, and history of these diverse voices. Home to the town of the first Abolitionist Newspaper in the Country. Home to the state that made Women’s Suffrage a reality. Home to Warner Institute, training Freedmen and Women as teachers beginning less than a decade after the end of the Civil War. Surprising, heartwarming, and often hilarious stories of the independent East Tennessee people come to life in this podcast with a voice and accent that can be found nowhere else.  
Sponsored by: The Tennessee Arts Commission, WETS 89.5 FM, The Town of Jonesborough, The McKinney Center, The Wild Women of Jonesborough, McLeod Organics, Trivia with Budds, Wolfe Development, Gary and Sandee Degner, and Terry and Sandy Countermine.