For decades, polls have shown most Americans believe equal opportunity in the workplace is beneficial and laws like the 1964 Civil Rights Act worked to achieve that goal. More recently, the effort has included voluntary diversity, equity and inclusion programs - known as DEI. On this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay looks at changing social and political sentiment that’s prompted efforts to dismantle the nation’s DEI programs. President Trump’s executive orders require government agencies and private businesses to stop the programs calling them illegal and immoral discrimination. State lawmakers are taking a cue from Washington and so far more than 30 states have considered or are looking at anti-DEI legislation, with half having already passed such laws. While some people say diversity programs provide positive societal change and are positive for a business’s bottom line, a growing percentage say the efforts are discriminatory practices that can lower employment standards and do not improve productivity or efficiency in the workplace.

Reality is more challenging now for people who live at the intersection between substance use disorder, homelessness and the criminal justice system. New laws across the nation echo aspects of the 2024 Safer Kentucky Act, which enhance penalties for violent crimes, drug crimes, shoplifting and carjacking, as well as a ban on public camping. On this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay returns to Kentucky to check on the consequences of the new tough-on-crime law. In cities, the demand for longterm and transitional housing remains acute, while in small town Appalachia the access to any social safety net can be far, far away.

Many Americans assume the U.S. Constitution guarantees men and women equal rights. But the authors of the Constitution did not consider women as part of ‘We the people.’ In fact, the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment provides far fewer protections for gender as a protected category than it does for race, religion or national origin. In this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay hears from author Jill Hasday, a law professor at the University of Minnesota whose new book “We the Men” lays out an unfinished agenda for women’s equality. Hasday says women are systematically forgotten in America’s most important stories about itself and there are important symbolic and emotional consequences from that exclusion.

The Trump administration’s efforts to cut federal spending is targeting a broad range of departments and agencies including the low-income health care program Medicaid. Republican lawmakers want work requirements in place for eligibility. But the scope of Medicaid programs goes beyond direct health care. Many people rely on Medicaid for treatment of substance use disorder and drug addiction. West Virginia has the nation's highest overdose numbers and the rate for African American people exceeds any other group. In this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay learns how Medicaid money supports the organizations that work in recovery and what that work looks like.

Home ownership in America is one of the most common ways to build wealth for future generations. But in Appalachia, West Virginia presents the complexities and nuances of that reality. The Mountain State has the nation’s highest homeownership rate but the second lowest personal income rate. And there’s another reality at work. Much of that housing is old and needs repair. In one West Virginia county, 67 percent of the homes are more than 80 years old and half rate below normal on standard quality measures. One estimate shows there are 500,000 people living in such conditions. This is a side of the housing crisis we don't often hear -- structures in disrepair without electricity, or running water, that people call home.

There’s a fresh slate of legislative agendas in the new year and some include efforts to chip away at reproductive rights and access to abortion, even in states that have recently passed constitutional abortion rights ballot measures. On this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay looks at what’s ahead after a record number of initiatives passed in November. There’s a lot that conservative legislatures and courts can do to limit the voter-approved amendments. While legal maneuvering continues, the number of abortions in the U.S. is at its highest level in more than a decade thanks to the increased use of abortion pills and travel across state lines. Abortion opponents want President Donald Trump to enforce a 19th Century law they say will stop abortion pills through the mail. Meanwhile, abortion-friendly states are using shield laws to protect their telehealth abortion providers from criminal prosecution for providing abortion pills to women in states with bans. The U.S.’s inconsistent abortion laws are pitting states against each other, and state governments against their citizens.

With the start of 2025, legislators in some states are determined to pass even tighter abortion restrictions. In the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe versus Wade, more than 40 states have passed abortion bans - some with very limited exceptions. Abortion rights advocates are equally determined to expand access to reproductive care — and some are looking at the lessons learned from half a century ago, before there was a right to legal abortion. On the next episode of Us & Them host Trey Kay hears from people who took on that work decades ago. We hear from supporters of reproductive rights who are ready for a new era of advocacy, while anti abortion advocates encourage a new Republican power center in Congress to tightly regulate medications and enact a federal abortion ban.