Welcome to The Blue Ridge Breakdown by me, Troy N. Miller.

I’m a progressive fighting for a future that serves human beings in West Virginia—not out-of-state corporations and their in-state cronies.

We’re launching this publication because legacy media outlets dominate what we see and hear from and about Appalachia, and most of it is soul crushing. Hell, most of it is soul-crushing everywhere.

If someone recommended this publication to you, I hope it’s because I have un-crushed their soul in some small way. Or at the very least that I’ve helped them better understand and even cope with some distressing current event or another. If you found this publication on your own, I hope that I can do those things for you!

In this newsletter I’ll analyze news items from around Appalachia and West Virginia and do my best to give them some meaning beyond the headline. What I write will often be infuriating. I’m sorry about that. But, just as scientists with garbage data will always produce garbage results (garbage in, garbage out), raw analysis of infuriating data/news will almost always produce an infuriating post.

Fortunately, this is my publication, and I am free to have opinions beyond raw analysis. I hope that my opinions can inspire us to fight for a better, human-first future for WV and that we can extend a better future to the entire Appalachian region.

A human-first future, to me, is one where human beings are valued more than corporate profits, and one where all humans have clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and one where human voices matter in our politics, no matter whose voice it is, where they live, what they own, or how big their paycheck is.

A human-first future is not one that forsakes the environment. Rather, I believe that we must be stewards of that which sustains us, and to separate our humanity from our environment is to starve ourselves literally and metaphorically.

Because I see lots of similar trends occurring at every scale, there will necessarily be big discussions of international and national events too. But at every scale, I am looking toward a human-first future.

If that is a future you would like to see, you will probably find something worth reading or listening to here.

In terms of frequency, all I can say for now is that I will be writing and/or podcasting one or more times a week. I would love to make everything available for free all the time, but writers are workers, and workers cannot live on exposure alone. So, some of it will only be available for some modest fee.


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About Troy N. Miller:

Originally from Wheeling, WV, Troy N. Miller earned a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University with a major in Science, Technology, and International Affairs and a concentration in Energy and Environmental Policy. Beginning during his time at Georgetown, Troy has accumulated over a decade of experience working in broadcast and media, along with activism and organizing. In recent years Troy contributed research, editing, and writing to eight of author and radio host Thom Hartmann’s books, including the Third Edition of The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight and Thom Hartmann’s Hidden History series of books. Troy’s writings on Appalachia and West Virginia have appeared in the Charleston Gazette-Mail, the Wheeling Intelligencer, Truthout.org along with Troy’s self-managed publication: The Blue Ridge Breakdown at Substack.com.

Currently, Troy serves as the West Virginia Organizer and Special Projects Director for Social Security Works. Troy is an At-Large member of the West Virginia State Democratic Executive Committee and represents the Middleway magisterial district on the Jefferson County Democratic Executive Committee. He lives in Jefferson County, WV, and is pursuing a Master of Arts in Appalachian Studies from Shepherd University.

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