In this episode, Amanda Held Opelt and I talk about her book Provisions and what the food of Appalachia can teach us about home, memory, and belonging. We discuss why we long for rootedness in an age of machines, why nostalgia can’t carry us back, and how diet culture loses its grip when food becomes a matter of history and gratitude. We look at how the caricature of the hillbilly served the coal and timber companies, how a seed can carry a people through grief, and why Jesus gave us a meal to remember him by. We also talk about how to become native to the place where you live.
Amanda Held Opelt is an award-winning author, speaker, and songwriter. She writes about faith, creativity, communal traditions, and life in Southern Appalachia. Amanda spent nearly fifteen years serving in the nonprofit sector, and her writing has appeared in Christianity Today, Plough, Religion News Service, and 100 Days in Appalachia. She lives with her husband and two young daughters in the mountains of Boone, North Carolina.
Amanda's Book:
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