Our Common Nature: West Virginia Coal

November 21, 2025

AI Summary

5 min read

In April 2010, an explosion ripped through the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia, killing 29 men. It was the worst mine disaster in the United States in 40 years. The surviving miners were told to report for work the next day. One of them, Chris Saunders, still remembers the lack of compassion. "If I was a CEO of a company, that's what we would have done," he says. "These people that lost friends, family, regardless. Let's show some kind of compassion." That disaster is the hidden center of this episode of Our Common Nature, a podcast hosted by producer Anna Gonzalez and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. They traveled to West Virginia to understand a place where coal has shaped everything—the landscape, the economy, the music, and the people who stay.

The Song That Isn't True

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What you'll learn

1 (01:29) **Introduction: Yo-Yo Ma and the "Our Common Nature" Podcast** - Lulu and Latif introduce a conversation with Yo-Yo Ma and producer Anna Gonzalez about their podcast series, which explores nature and community through music and storytelling.
2 (07:41) **Episode Setup: West Virginia and Coal** - The episode focuses on West Virginia, covering a recent tragedy, the New River, and a famous song based on a lie.
3 (09:34) **The Complicated Legacy of Coal** - The episode explores how coal has shaped the lives of West Virginians and the country, even as the industry shrinks.
4 (12:04) **Gathering by the River: Stories and Songs** - Anna and Yo-Yo meet with miners, a poet, and musicians by the New River to discuss the region's identity.
5 (13:16) **The Myth of "Country Roads"** - The group discusses the iconic song "Take Me Home, Country Roads," which is beloved in West Virginia but geographically inaccurate.
6 (15:49) **"Lean On Me" and the Reality of Mining** - A coal miner suggests Bill Withers' "Lean On Me" as a truer representation of West Virginia, but a black miner's family offers a different perspective.
7 (18:15) **Meeting Chris Saunders: A Miner's Life** - Anna meets Chris Saunders, Zora's son and a present-day coal miner, to get a deeper understanding of the mining life.

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Show Notes

Today on the show, we’re bringing you an episode from Our Common Nature (https://link.podtrac.com/v7mx144d), a new podcast series where cellist Yo-Yo Ma and host Ana González travel around the United States to meet people, make music and better understand how culture binds us to nature. The series features a few familiar voices, including Ana González (host) and Alan Goffinski (producer), from our kids podcast, Terrestrials (https://link.podtrac.com/vysacqn1).

About the episode:
West Virginia is defined by its beauty and its coal, two things that can work against each other. Yo-Yo Ma felt this as soon as stepped foot in its hills.This episode explores how music and poetry help process the emotions of a community besieged with disaster and held together by pride and duty. We travel down the Coal River with third-generation coal miner Chris Saunders, who tells us how coal has saved and threatened his life. Poet Crystal Good shares her poetry, which channels her rage and love. And musician and granddaughter of West Virginia coal miners, Kathy Mattea, explains the beauty of belting out your home state in a chorus. The end of the episode finds host Ana floating down the New River with help from a group of high schoolers and Yo-Yo Ma.

Listen to the full series Our Common Nature (https://link.podtrac.com/v7mx144d).

Featuring music by Yo-Yo Ma, Dom Flemons, and Kathy Mattea and poetry by Crystal Good.

EPISODE CREDITS:
Radiolab Bits Produced - Anisa Vietze (Radiolab bits)

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