Katie Myers

1 day ago | grist.org | Katie Myers

This coverage is made possible through a partnership between Grist and BPR, a public radio station serving western North Carolina. On a clear, sunny day in May, just a few weeks into the Smoky Mountain rafting season, Heather Ellis took a dozen people through the Pigeon River Gorge to celebrate its grand reopening. She led them over and through roaring rapids with a practiced ease. “Forward!” she called. When the water rose, everyone heaved on their oar, ducking against the spray.

2 weeks ago | grist.org | Katie Myers

When the Trump administration took the first steps toward shutting down two major programs aimed at protecting the nation’s miners, the grassroots response was immediate, and vehement. And, it turns out, successful. In March, the administration moved to shutter over 30 field offices of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, or MSHA, throughout coal country. Weeks later, it proposed cutting 90 percent of the staff at the National Institute for Occupational Health.

4 weeks ago | indyweek.com | Katie Myers

An interview with author Denali Sai Nalamalapu on storytelling, fossil fuels, and the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

4 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Katie Myers

Protesters at an Mountain Valley Pipeline construction site in 2023. (Katie Myers | BPR)This coverage is made possible through a partnership between BPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization. The Mountain Valley Pipeline transports natural gas through West Virginia and Virginia. But for 10 years, climate activists and worried locals opposed it, even locking themselves to equipment and camping in the pipeline’s path.

1 month ago | grist.org | Katie Myers

Sandra Anderson didn’t think the storm would be too bad. When her grandchildren asked if the dogs should be brought in, Anderson demurred, saying they’d be fine. But later that night, an alert on her phone warned her of a tornado tearing through her hometown of London, Kentucky. Seconds later, it hit her neighborhood.  “I hollered for my handicapped son to hit the hallway,” Anderson said. “Windows were exploding.