J.D. Belcher has built an audience of more than 200,000 followers by telling stories about West Virginia and Appalachia that often go untold.

The former coal miner and self-taught filmmaker is the creator and host of Creepalachia, where he explores everything from folklore, paranormal encounters and unsolved mysteries to industrial tragedies, missing persons and the challenges facing some of West Virginia’s most isolated communities.

Belcher joins me on State of Minds to talk about the unlikely path that took him from the coal mines to filmmaking and eventually Creepalachia. We discuss his fascination with the unknown, including his own unexplained experience inside the former Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, and some of the legendary West Virginia stories that continue to capture his attention.

But there is another side to Belcher’s work. He talks about using his growing platform to help raise awareness about missing persons, tell the stories of families looking for answers and advocate for communities he believes have too often been overlooked or misrepresented.

We also get into the Greenbrier Ghost, the West Virginia Penitentiary, the Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster, Mothman and the history embedded in communities across the Mountain State.

At the heart of it all is Belcher’s belief that West Virginia is more than a beautiful place. It is a place filled with stories—and those stories are worth preserving and telling.

It’s a wide-ranging and fascinating conversation with one of Appalachia’s most distinctive new storytellers on this episode of State of Minds.