UNBOXING KENTUCKY: What It's Like Living in KENTUCKY

does everyone in kentucky like horses is everyone in the eastern hillsides a hillbilly and do they all love college basketball here we're going to cover those things and more so get out your 1920s prohibition style straight bourbon whiskey we're gonna unbox the state of kentucky man this is pretty this is the bluegrass area in kentucky the most well-known region in the state but kentucky has a lot of really pretty places in it river gorges mountain ranges prairies and farmland it's actually one of the most ecologically diverse states in the region well actually i should stop right there kentucky isn't a state it's a commonwealth let's get that straight and there's a debate as to if kentucky's a midwestern state or a southern state let's set the record straight on that too kentucky is a southern state pal there's no doubt about that but it's also kind of midwestern sort of in many areas now to get a really thorough understanding of the state of kentucky and to get to know what each area is like and where the best and worst parts to live are we should look at each various region and this common wealth this is kentucky as you can tell it's not all hillbillies and rednecks and bible thumpers kentucky's actually way more than just that in fact by the end of this video you're probably going to have your mind changed on how you think about kentucky because there's a lot more going on than you might have thought we'll begin our tour of kentucky over here in eastern kentucky now i just got through saying kentucky's not all banjo playing barefoot hillbillies and then i begin over in eastern kentucky which is a lot of banjo playing barefoot hillbillies well some of them are anyways this is appalachia boy home to lots of coal mining or was home to lots of cool mining as america's lessened its dependence on coal over time these small towns tucked way back in the haulers in eastern kentucky are shrinking and because coal jobs are going away this part of the state has not only the poorest counties in the state but some of the highest poverty in the country eastern kentucky kind of broadly begins anywhere east of i-75 but the really poor areas are in the hillsides of the appalachian mountains you can see on this map which counties in particular have been hit hardest with poverty over the last 50 years it's actually really sad nobody's moving in out here and as people die off the towns get even smaller you can buy a place to live out here for anywhere between 50 grand and 200 grand depending on how much land you want but it's incredibly mountainous and difficult terrain to manage there's a stereotype that folks out here marry their cousins and drink mountain dew and take drugs if you look at this map most of the meth use is on the eastern side of the state so yes math is a big problem in these poorer communities now in terms of the cousin-lover part well it's a state law that you're not supposed to marry your cousin but i'm sure it happens out here i mean there's a reason people say kentucky has 4.5 million people and six last names anyways just about everybody in this part of the state's just regular people just really poor most folks here are very close-knit and they love the locals and they typically don't like a lot of outsiders coming in and causing trouble good for them the bad side is the poverty here goes hand in hand with bad lifestyle choices this map shows the highest cancer death rates in the nation and look at eastern kentucky a lot of that has to do with obesity and smoking rates in this part of the state and the waters contaminated from coal mining so they say coal's a big political divider in kentucky a lot of people still support coal and the politicians suck up to the eastern kentucky coal voters by blowing millions on a dying industry that continues to shrink year after year and the people there they don't really want to change it's the industry that's supported their families it's hard to walk away from the sad truth a lot of people in eastern kentucky find their purpose and their identity in coal no matter how much it goes down this region is also home to a distinct school of country music that combines old folk tunes bluegrass and other country styles famous artists from eastern kentucky include chris stapleton dwight yoakam and loretta lynn among others good for you eastern kentucky besides music moonshining still a thing out here moonshine is basically unaged backyard brewed whiskey that's really strong it's illegal but since when did that stop anybody before we'll talk more about whiskey varieties in this state a little later and finally one more stereotype we have to address a lot of us associate appalachia with dumb people without teeth and that is so mean they're not all like that in the state i mean as a whole kentucky ranks 16th in the country for quality of public schools so that might be surprising to you i'm telling you kentucky's got a lot to prove now southeastern kentucky is also very poor places like hazard in williamsburg and london and corbin are small towns with good people but not a lot of opportunity but that didn't stop colonel sanders north corbin is where the first ever kentucky fried chicken was sorta harlan sanders began serving his unique style of chicken in his filling station here and it became really popular but the actual first franchise began in salt lake city and it kind of took off from there so kfc did start in kentucky but only has an idea more than anything else [Music] and there's a stereotype that kentuckians only eat kfc that's not true actually if you ask around chick-fil-a is more of the king of the south now boy kentucky cuisine is sort of unique they love a dish called hot browns which is an open-faced sandwich with ham and bacon covered in mornay sauce and cheese they also eat burgu a meaty stew with vegetables the mountain folk put squirrel and rabbit in theirs there's also an underrated barbecue scene here especially in the western side of the state which utilizes a lot of mutton as opposed to beef or chicken and there's quite a few popular drinks made famous in kentucky too ale8 and mint juleps are popular and of course bourbon whiskey which brings us to central kentucky now this is the bluegrass region of the state possibly the most well-known region of kentucky you can roughly divide central kentucky up into the lexington metro area all the way down between i-65 and i-75 the middle region of the state is known for rolling hills horse farms and bourbon it's actually really pretty here the first settlers who came here said it reminded them of ireland the bluegrass species of grass that grows here isn't really blue per se it's green but when it first pops up every spring the buds do have a blue hue to them this part of the state's predominantly middle class but the stretch here from louisville to lexington is probably the most upper-class part it's a lot of horse farms and bourbon distilleries along this stretch a lot of people who live here commute into lexington or louisville for work frankfurt's capital it's a nice enough place kind of boring georgetown's an upper-class community so is versailles it looks like you'd call it versailles but they call it versailles here lexington has 300 000 people making it the state's second largest city it's home to the university of kentucky which is beloved by just about everyone in this entire state most of lexington is a nice place it's a college town so it's progressive there's a smallish tech scene emerging here the north side of lexington is a really bad area though lots of crime in poverty and run down neighborhoods the horse industry in the bluegrass region also attracts a lot of tourism and brings in a lot of money to the state there's a lot of celebrities and politicians from all over the world that have houses in central kentucky and they've invested significant amounts of money into horse farms even the sheik of the united arab emirates has a farm just outside of lexington in case you didn't know lexington's a race capital of the world they know how to breed prize race horses around here hombre it's not uncommon for horses bred in lexington to fetch millions of bucks of course everybody's heard of the kentucky derby which pretty much shuts this place down at the end of every april the derby's held at churchill downs in louisville the race comes with a bunch of hype and people wear funny hats and drink fancy drinks the whole race takes about two minutes and then everybody goes back to their lives again speaking of fancy drinks this is a good time to talk about kentucky bourbon there's bourbon distilleries all over this part of the state there's actually more bourbon barrels in this state than people 95 of the world's bourbon comes from kentucky as such the bourbon industry here also results in lots of tourism too and there's all sorts of whiskey varieties but bourbon is the only whisky variety where corn is at least half of the ingredients evan williams or early times or kentucky gentlemen are cheap buffalo trace is good but affordable but some limited batch bourbons like elijah craig or woodford reserve can cost more than 200 a bottle pappy van winkles is made in frankfurt and a bottle of it can run as high as 5 000 but that's nothing compared to this bottle of japanese whiskey that sells for five hundred and ten thousand dollars what the what the what is in this whiskey and who can afford that south of lexington all the way down to the tennessee border is a mix of smaller towns and countryside with lots of farms and rolling hills there's also some nice areas down here it's kind of spread out hunting's a big deal in this part of the state as far as the kentucky guy thinks it's always deer season if you're into exploring the largest underground cave system in the world is here located in mammoth caves national park 500 000 people go down there every year and well explore caves there's eyeless fish and cave salamanders and cave shrimp down there now north of lexington is where kentucky becomes much more suburban this whole area here from lexington to covington to the northern louisville suburbs is called the golden triangle it's a lot of middle class suburbs soccer moms malls parks and sprawl the kind of place where kids walk to school and neighbors have fourth of july parades and their cul-de-sacs this is a part of the state where most of the wealth and people are it's a big economic engine for the state here right across the ohio river from cincinnati is the city of covington a lot of people here and further from the ohio river commute into cincinnati every day or if you're close enough you can actually walk over the bridge into cincinnati for work this part of the state has a very midwestern vibe a lot of people here have a midwest twang in their accent and it's a lot less southern than the rest of the state there's a lot of transplants from indiana and ohio who settle here for a relatively low cost of living more amenities and less crime so not everybody here identifies as a true blue kentuckian anyways this whole area from covington to florence all the way down to williamstown and falmouth can be considered northern kentucky it's growing super fast but still relatively affordable you can get a great house in a nice neighborhood for under 300k a lot of the housing communities with all the track homes can fetch into the mid 400 000 so what's not affordable though our pockets south as we get closer to the louisville metro area oldham county is the wealthiest part in this entire state this is where all the doctors and lawyers and fancy horse breeders live homes here fetch about 350k each on average but many are much much more than that louisville is just south of that in jefferson county okay and by the way there's an annoyance among folks here who want you and i to say the name of their city correctly it's not louisville or louisville it's louisville say it with me louisville there's 770 000 people here making this kentucky's largest city in fact about a quarter of the state's whole population lives in the louisville metro area louisville feels very midwestern with a hint of southern it's a pretty good mix of folks white-collar professionals college students hipsters hippies rednecks and inner-city gangsters this is the most diverse part of the state for sure the west side of louisville is the roughest part of this whole state outside of north lexington much of the area west of the university of louisville to the ohio river is an area that's fallen way behind in terms of economic development and progress if there's a shooting in kentucky it's likely in west louisville that's the main reason louisville was just outside the top 10 when it came to the deadliest big cities in the country not too long ago while louisville proper only has one-seventh of this state's entire population it has 40 percent of kentucky's murders kentucky as a whole though is actually quite safe you may not know it but kentucky is the 10th safest state in the country take louisville out of the equation and this state would be top five safest for sure because for the most part outside of louisville crimes are usually drug drug-related handled by pathetic lazy junkies this high crime and the political clout that louisville holds over the rest of the state are the main reasons the rest of kentucky doesn't really care for louisville that much the rest of kentucky is very much humble and welcoming and hardworking and safe parts of louisville are not that mitch mcconnell lives in louisville which is another reason people in kentucky don't like this city he's not much well liked in the state but according to kentuckians really isn't a better option or at least nobody could gain enough traction to unseat him as one of the state senators politically louisville votes hard democrat but the rest of the states are very conservative so louisville doesn't share on the political or cultural values that much of the rest of the state does of course there's a ton of fun stuff to do in louisville there's bars and restaurants all over and cultural things to do baxter avenue and bardstown road both have long stretches with entertainment options many stay open until four a.m now as you go south out of louisville it gets country living really fast like 10 minutes south of louisville and you get pickup trucks and country music and confederate flags while eastern kentucky would be your stereotypical hillbillies this is where the rednecks roam and this is where we get to our last region to discuss western kentucky this part of the state also has a midwestern vibe it's flat and relatively rural there's lots of farmland they get tornadoes here and between all the farms there are decent decent-sized great places to raise kids this is a very distinctly different part of the state kind of tucked between indiana and tennessee agriculture and livestock are the primary economic drivers of most of western kentucky there's a lot of tobacco grown in this part of the state it's very religious too in fact this is the most religious part of this whole state most kentuckians are protestants and baptists and seeing as how about two-thirds of the state considers itself highly religious kentucky ranks as the 13th most religious of all states there's also pockets of mennonites and amish in this part of the state too and we have to briefly mention kentucky's snake handling churches that's where they use snakes to test your faith if you get bit you don't have the true spirit pal notable cities in western kentucky include paducah owensboro murray elizabethtown and bowling green all are very nice they're kind of under the radar middle class places with a decent amount of jobs and things to do paducah is right along the ohio river it's a nice place they have an annual quilt show here where the population doubles from thirty thousand to sixty thousand people who are into quilts if you're not into quilts you will not be liked in paducah jk you don't have to quilt to live here murray is a cute college town home to murray state university owensboro has 60 000 people in a cool downtown area e-town has 30 000 people and also has great schools it could be considered a military town since it's just south of fort knox which is an army base bowling green's also a super nice place to live it's also a college town home to western kentucky university it's one of the fastest growing cities in the country and it's been called one of the top small towns in the country to raise a family it has a great small town feel and great schools there's also a corvette factory here and a gm plant you may not know it but kentucky ranks third in the nation for automobile manufacturing there's also a big ford plant in louisville and georgetown has a toyota plant kentucky is sort of becoming a mini detroit aren't they one final interesting thing of note out here there's a little peninsula here called the kentucky bend that's not actually connected to kentucky anymore because the mississippi river changed course to get there you have to go through tennessee kentuckians are incredibly proud of their state it's perhaps one of the most culturally distinct regions in the country they're friendly and hospitable religious with a strong sense of morals and values outside of louisville in its churches and potlucks and a friendly safe atmosphere it's still affordable here and there's breathtaking natural beauty all around it's a solid mix of culturally rich and modern cities and plenty of wild countryside are disappearing too kentuckians are actually much more wealthy and intelligent than people think although stereotypes of kentucky being a poor backward place are not true for the most part there's large parts of the state that are up and coming and where people have a nice middle class lifestyle okay i think we did a pretty good job of looking at kentucky from a higher level didn't we yes we did we learned a lot about kentucky we learned a lot about what kentucky is not like it's not just bourbon and horse racing and dumb people is it no no it's not we could have gone on and on and talked about a lot of things that made kentucky great like we didn't even have time to talk about the baseball bats they make here we didn't talk about the complicated civil war history in kentucky nor did we have time to talk about the hatfield mccoys how do we have no time to talk about them but we have to go the kentucky derby is about to start and i bet a bunch of money on a horse that's about to finish last kentucky you're so pretty you're so pretty all the time kentucky kentucky kentucky you're so friendly you're so friendly all the time kentucky kentucky you sit around all night watching basketball if uk doesn't win you're gonna hit the floor you can't wait until march that's everything you love kentucky you make all the bourbon we can drink you're way down in the south but more midwest we think kentucky you raise horses and they run so fast in states like you kentucky your grass is blue it's so blue kentucky you all wear shoes kentucky kentucky kentucky kentucky you're so pretty you're so pretty all the time kentucky kentucky kentucky you're so friendly you're so friendly all the time kentucky kentucky kentucky isn't dumb and they have all their teeth it's growing kinda fast cause it's a place to kentucky doesn't care what you and i will think just you be you kentucky if you move to a move to them they'll steal your heart and now a special shout out to my friend marilyn sly who's recovering right now from an injury she's a big fan of this channel and she's taking some time to heal up right now marilyn you get well we need you to get back on your feet again soon yeah marilyn you're one of our biggest fans we're pulling for you get better soon nice one mappy that was really nice hopefully you made marilyn smile today hey guys if you learned something new about america or what it's like to live in america great you should think about subscribing and turning on your notifications you can also click one of these videos or playlists for more you can also now buy my songs on itunes and other formats click the link in the description thanks for watching and remember while we all might have different views we should all be nice to each other and try to make the u.s a better place in a positive way this is sage nyx manager this has been a corner house entertainment production

Channel: Nick Johnson

Views: 212,966

Rating: 4.8371487 out of 5

Keywords: living in kentucky, kentucky, what is kentucky like, kentucky research, i live in kentucky, kentucky travel, kentucky food, what is kentucky, kentucky trivia, why do people live in kentucky, kentucky map, kentucky residents, kentucky culture, kentucky cost of living, moving to kentucky, kentucky realtor, kentucky mortgage loan, what part of kentucky should i move to, bourbon, kentucky derby, bluegrass, eastern kentucky, coal, western kentucky, lexington, louisville, bowling green

Id: STbdwYWB6O0

Length: 19min 35sec (1175 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 12 2021