In this episode, Western Carolina University political science professor Chris Cooper joins Jeremy Markovich to talk about the things that drive the political scene in our state, why candidates do the things they do, and how the Roy Cooper of the past made things tougher for the Roy Cooper of the present. Read more at ncrabbithole.com . Check out Chris's new book, " Anatomy of a Purple State " Read Jeremy's Politico story referenced in this episode: " I Ran the Worst 5K of My Life So I Could Exp...
Nov 01, 2024•30 min
Once you’ve seen one broken-down junker with a white rag in the window, you start seeing them everywhere. Is this just a North Carolina thing? What’s it supposed to mean? Why do so many people do it? And, if so many people are doing the same thing, then where did the idea come from? Reporter Jeremy Markovich investigates to get to the bottom of an old piece of highway folklore. Read more and see pictures at https://www.ncrabbithole.com/p/history-of-white-cloth-in-car-door-window Subscribe to the...
Mar 06, 2024•14 min
MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson) has more than 300 million total subscribers on YouTube and some of his videos have more viewers than the Super Bowl. He’s opened restaurants. He’s launched his own food company called Feastables. The MrBeast logo is now on the jerseys of the Charlotte Hornets. Also, MrBeast is 25-years-old. This multi-million dollar YouTube media empire? It's based in Greenville, North Carolina of all places. So how did that happen? In this episode, journalist Jeremy Markovich talks...
Feb 23, 2024•30 min
A sixth-grade student from the Raleigh area drew a boy riding a unicorn. It's now the official "I Voted Early" sticker for the Wake County Board of Elections. In this episode, artist Shannon Fisher explains some of the details and the background behind a sticker that's turning heads at polling places around Raleigh and beyond. See the sticker and read more about it: https://www.ncrabbithole.com/p/wake-county-nc-i-voted-early-sticker-unicorn Subscribe to the North Carolina Rabbit Hole newsletter ...
Feb 16, 2024•9 min
In this episode, host Jeremy Markovich and ESPN senior writer Ryan McGee talk about beer, old school racing, a man named Dick Trickle, and a quiet trick to to help you navigate a boisterous social situation. Read Jeremy's 2013 SB Nation story about Dick Trickle: " Elegy of a Race Car Driver " Subscribe to the North Carolina Rabbit Hole newsletter at ncrabbithole.com . Special thanks to Kenny Wallace....
Feb 08, 2024•22 min
In this special holiday episode, host Jeremy Markovich meets the man from Gastonia who became the world's largest manufacturer of Christmas ornaments and used his power to make North Carolina more tolerant of all religions. This episode was originally released in 2018 and was adapted from: " The Unlikely Ornament King of Gastonia " which appeared in Our State magazine's December 2016 issue. Additional music: Blue Dot Sessions...
Dec 21, 2023•25 min
North Wilkesboro Speedway is hosting the NASCAR All-Star Race, a quarter century after its last major event. Why did it sit empty for so long? And how did it finally reopen? In this episode, host Jeremy Markovich takes a look back as a historic place now looks toward a new future. More Reading: " Ghosts of North Wilkesboro " (2015) - SB Nation " The Inside Story of How a Dead NASCAR Track Finally Reopened After 26 Years " (2022) - North Carolina Rabbit Hole " A Night When Anything Was Possible "...
May 17, 2023•24 min
Shortly after I moved to Charlotte in 2005, I became a Carolina Panthers fan because it was much better than being a fan of the Cleveland Browns. A few years later, I became the producer of the Panthers postgame show on a local television station. A few years after that , the production moved from the station to the stadium. It was there that I first heard a piece of information that I hadn’t actually considered before: The screaming panther sound—the noise that you’d hear during home games when...
Apr 27, 2023•18 min
After 2 1/2 years, host Jeremy Markovich is breaking his silence to explain, well, where he's been all this time, why you haven't heard any new episodes since then, and what happens now. Read more here about the immediate plans for Away Message and its new home at the North Carolina Rabbit Hole .
Apr 20, 2023•7 min
In the season finale, our hikers reach the Outer Banks of North Carolina and end of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. Now, more than a year later, we see where they've ended up and how the trip has affected their lives.
Nov 03, 2020•42 min•Season 4Ep. 8
As our Mountains-to-Sea Trail thru-hikers approach the end, one final challenge remains: A kayak trip down two of North Carolina's most well-known waterways. All will have to grapple with problems that could potentially stop them from reaching their final destination.
Sep 24, 2020•39 min•Season 4Ep. 7
In this bonus episode, host Jeremy Markovich talks with long-time hiking guide Jennifer Pharr Davis about how anyone can prepare for and pull off a trip on a trail, from day-trippers to thru-hikers on North Carolina's Mountains-to-Sea Trail. Read Davis's story about hiking the Appalachian Trail from the October 2015 issue of Our State magazine. Read more about her 2017 hike of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. Learn more about Davis and her company, Blue Ridge Hiking Company . Contact Jeremy via email...
Sep 04, 2020•32 min
In this episode, we travel to Roseboro, a small eastern North Carolina town that sits on the route of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail but doesn't actually have any good places to hike. Yet. We also meet the trail angels that hikers depend on to get to the end, and talk to a woman who's attempting to finish the MST in just 30 days. Find out more about Tara Dower's attempt to beat the fastest known time on the MST here ....
Aug 20, 2020•36 min•Season 4Ep. 6
As Erin Brennan and Aaron and Lexi Harris pass the halfway point on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, the path undergoes a dramatic shift from footpath to roadside. In this episode, we take a closer look at the parts of the MST that only attract the most intrepid hikers, and discover what it takes to bike and hike your way through a world built for cars.
Jul 24, 2020•39 min•Season 4Ep. 5
When it comes to trail towns along the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, Elkin stands out. So how did a quiet place in the North Carolina foothills go trail crazy? We find out, thanks to the men who are building footpaths as fast as they can.
Jul 03, 2020•34 min•Season 4Ep. 4
In 1955, a dentist and five of his friends played a round of golf. They were black. The course was white-only. What happened next changed the course of one man's life, and in turn, helped integrate an entire town. This originally premiered in July 2018 under the title "The Round of Golf That Changed a City." To read a written version of this story, visit ourstate.com/simkins . There you can find the complete 2000 interview with George Simkins, along with a transcript....
Jun 11, 2020•32 min
What's it like to be with the one you love 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? In this episode, host Jeremy Markovich meets Aaron and Lexi Harris, a pair of newlyweds who experienced the highs and lows of hiking the Mountains-to-Sea Trail across western North Carolina.
May 25, 2020•34 min•Season 4Ep. 3
On the first day of her trip across North Carolina on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, veteran Erin Brennan is making sense of new gear, new routines, and a new beginning with the help of Warrior Expeditions, a group that treats hiking like therapy.
May 01, 2020•32 min•Season 4Ep. 2
The new season of our award-winning podcast begins with some fairly basic questions. What is the Mountains-to-Sea Trail? How was it created? Who were the first people to hike the whole thing? And who would hike all 1,175 miles of it today? In this premiere episode, host Jeremy Markovich talks to the man who (accidentally) created it, as well as a llama wrangler who ended up doing something no one else had done before. We also meet several hikers, who are about to set out on their own journeys ac...
Apr 14, 2020•36 min•Season 4Ep. 1
In the latest season of Our State's podcast, we take a trip down North Carolina's Mountains-to-Sea Trail. All 1,175 miles of it.
Apr 07, 2020•5 min
A replay of Season 1, Episode 3, entitled "As High As You Can Get." It's the story of a man who climbs to the top of 2,000-foot-tall television broadcast towers to change the light bulbs, and how he remains calm in an environment that most of us would consider to be frightening.
Mar 18, 2020•24 min
Jeff Postell was a 21-year-old police officer when he made an arrest in the middle of the night in a small North Carolina town. That arrest ended a five year manhunt for the Olympic Park Bomber, Eric Rudolph, and changed Postell's life in an instant. In this season finale, we track him down to find out what happened to the soft-spoken North Carolinian who brought in a notorious fugitive. Jeremy Markovich : producer, mixer, host James Mieczkowski : producer Elizabeth Hudson : editor-in-chief Musi...
Nov 21, 2019•55 min•Season 3Ep. 8
What do outsiders see when they look at North Carolina? In this bonus episode, host Jeremy Markovich turns to The Andy Griffith Show for answers, and talks to a woman who worked on the series, then moved to the real-life town that the fictional Mayberry was based on.
Oct 22, 2019•10 min
Davis Island wasn’t always an island. In the early 1900s, a hurricane cut a path through a peninsula that stuck out into Core Sound, separating a stately home from the mainland. Years later, a man achieved his childhood dream of living in that home. What he found was peace and beauty, and a love story that came to him, in an isolated place, with an unexpected knock on his door. We traveled to the North Carolina coast to tell the story of a remote island, a chance meeting, and a man who’s trying ...
Oct 01, 2019•36 min•Season 3Ep. 7
A New Yorker named Stephen Barcelo moved to a small town in northeastern North Carolina. Then he started seeing ghosts. Then bigfoot showed up. In this episode, we visit Littleton, go on a search for a hard-to-find creature, and find out what it really means to believe. Sign up for our newsletter at ourstate.com/podcast .
Sep 13, 2019•29 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Curtis Johnson fell in love with music while growing up in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. But when he gave up his job as a disc jockey to support his family, he held on to his dream. Now, he puts on small house-style concerts in an out-of-the-way place, and the shows keep everyone coming back for more. James Mieczkowski : reporter, producer Jeremy Markovich : producer, mixer, host Elizabeth Hudson : editor-in-chief Music in this episode: "Midnight Special," by Mark Stuart and Stacey Earle , perform...
Aug 28, 2019•33 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Christina Koch was once a kid growing up in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Now, she's living on the International Space Station. In this episode, we go back to school to find out how she turned her dream of becoming an astronaut into reality. Some audio provided by: Houston, We Have A Podcast . Music in this episode: Closing Song: Dream Big, by Beau James (Greensboro) Special Thanks: NASA-TV...
Jul 19, 2019•27 min•Season 3Ep. 4
From Season 1: A trip to a cemetery that's only reachable by boat reveals a story about progress, a national park, promises made, and promises broken. Along the way, we meet the woman who kept hope alive, and kept a sacred spot from being forgotten.
Jul 10, 2019•22 min
A woman from Mooresville, North Carolina became Mecklenburg County’s first black nurse. Then she became a prolific and well-respected artist. Along the way, she got President Franklin D. Roosevelt to sit for her, and the relief sculpture she created looks very similar to the likeness that’s on the dime. Is it hers? Or is it a coincidence? Host Jeremy Markovich goes in search of the truth, and learns about the facts that matter, and the facts that don’t.
May 24, 2019•30 min•Season 3Ep. 3
On May 7, 2016, a man fell hundreds of feet down a mountainside, and ended up in a treacherous spot in North Carolina’s most rugged place. This is the story of a rescue that took hours and a recovery that took months, one that shows how unforgiving the wilderness can be, even for experienced hikers. Music in this episode: Closing Song: Baby’s Got The Blues, by H.C. McEntire, courtesy of Merge Records (Durham, North Carolina) Special Thanks: Burke County Emergency Communications Center Watch Shug...
May 07, 2019•32 min•Season 3Ep. 2
