Poisoned Appalachia: the Dark Side of Appalachia
Sep 14, 2026 · 25 min · 10 segments
Fairies in Appalachia? Absolutely—but forget the tiny wings, glitter, and happily-ever-afters. Long before the modern fairy tale, the Fair Folk of European folklore were mysterious, unpredictable…
Hey, y'all.
As always, thank you for listening.
I hope you enjoyed last week's episode on the death fog.
I'm surprised after doing this for 80 episodes, I'd never even heard of that.
It's, it's crazy.
[laughs] I thought that was an interesting one, though, especially from where I'm from.
It's something that seems like it could happen around here if the conditions are right, even today.
But luckily, we have a lot better safety standards now.
So, who knows? But things can still happen.
Today, we're gonna be on the more fanciful side of the Dark Side of Appalachia, but not necessarily the lighter side.
Today, we're gonna talk about fairies.
If you know anything about real fairy stories, you know that they aren't the cute little Disney fairies that are here to help us.
Fairies can be dark and scary, and oftentimes out to trick us.
What we're gonna talk about today would be considered the fae, I guess.
Fairies and the fae can often be used interchangeably, but I think the best way to think about it is fairies are the Disney versions, cute little beings just really out there to help humans and dance in nature and be happy.
But for the sake of the podcast, I may say fairies from time to time, but it is the fae I'm talking about.
Also, when their stories came to Appalachia, they did not speak to them as the fae generally.
They called them the fair folk or the good people, kind ones, little people, good neighbors, various other euphemisms.
So I may actually use some of that terminology throughout, too.
Before we talk about how belief in the fae made its way to Appalachia, we probably need to answer one question first.
What exactly are the fae? And that question's a lot harder to answer than you might think.
[laughs] There's so much folklore surrounding the fae that I could probably make an entire series about just them, and honestly, maybe someday I will.
Who knows? [laughs] But for this episode, I'm gonna keep it simple, because what I'm really interested in is how these old Appalachian, or how these old beliefs crossed the ocean and eventually found a home in Appalachian Mountains.
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Hey, y'all.
As always, thank you for listening.
I hope you enjoyed last week's episode on the death fog.
I'm surprised after doing this for 80 episodes, I'd never even heard of that.
It's, it's crazy.
[laughs] I thought that was an interesting one, though, especially from where I'm from.
It's something that seems like it could happen around here if the conditions are right, even today.
But luckily, we have a lot better safety standards now.
So, who knows? But things can still happen.
Today, we're gonna be on the more fanciful side of the Dark Side of Appalachia, but not necessarily the lighter side.
Today, we're gonna talk about fairies.
If you know anything about real fairy stories, you know that they aren't the cute little Disney fairies that are here to help us.
Fairies can be dark and scary, and oftentimes out to trick us.
What we're gonna talk about today would be considered the fae, I guess.
Fairies and the fae can often be used interchangeably, but I think the best way to think about it is fairies are the Disney versions, cute little beings just really out there to help humans and dance in nature and be happy.
But for the sake of the podcast, I may say fairies from time to time, but it is the fae I'm talking about.
Also, when their stories came to Appalachia, they did not speak to them as the fae generally.
They called them the fair folk or the good people, kind ones, little people, good neighbors, various other euphemisms.
So I may actually use some of that terminology throughout, too.
Before we talk about how belief in the fae made its way to Appalachia, we probably need to answer one question first.
What exactly are the fae? And that question's a lot harder to answer than you might think.
[laughs] There's so much folklore surrounding the fae that I could probably make an entire series about just them, and honestly, maybe someday I will.
Who knows? [laughs] But for this episode, I'm gonna keep it simple, because what I'm really interested in is how these old Appalachian, or how these old beliefs crossed the ocean and eventually found a home in Appalachian Mountains.
