July 4th, 1776 is arguably the most important date in American history. That's when citizens of the colonies declared total independence from Great Britain for the very first time. But what if it wasn’t the first? This week, we travel down the rabbit hole of North Carolina’s Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence and entertain a couple of shocking possibilities: either someone’s lying — or we may need to rethink everything we know about American independence. This episode originally published o...
Jul 03, 2025•19 min
Enticed by cheap energy and friendly zoning laws, crypto mining operations poured into Appalachia. But in many places, like Murphy, North Carolina, these incredibly invasive facilities quickly wore out their welcome. Now, communities across the region are trying to pull the plug on crypto, while grappling with a new challenge that presents many of the same problems: AI data centers. Featuring: Jane Sartwell, reporter for Carolina Public Press Cyndie Roberson, former resident of Cherokee County, ...
Jun 26, 2025•25 min
Juneteenth commemorates the emancipation of enslaved people at the end of the Civil War. For many Black Americans, it’s a day of remembrance for their ancestors who fought and died for freedom. And while that can be a spiritual experience, the physical connection to a final resting place is often obstructed by poor record keeping and the neglect of burial sites. It’s a struggle that author Sade Green documented in a recent personal essay for TIME Magazine. Featuring: Sade Green, writer Links: Re...
Jun 19, 2025•19 min
The Venus flytrap is one of the most recognizable plants on the planet. Its strange and unique adaptations have made it a cultural icon and a favorite of plant collectors. But increasingly, there are worries about the health of its wild population. That's because the exotic plant only grows in a single place on the planet: a sliver of dirt in a small corner of the Carolinas. Featuring: Michael Kunz, Director of Conservation Programs at the North Carolina Botanical Garden Sara Heise Graybeal, fre...
Jun 12, 2025•22 min
Marlin fishing helps fuel a billion-dollar recreational saltwater fishing industry. Much of it is situated on the North Carolina coast, which also happens to be the site of one of the oldest and most celebrated fishing competitions in the world – the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament. It’s an event filled with high stakes drama, and it continues to grow. But are there enough blue marlin in the ocean for the good times to keep rolling on? Featuring: Ashley Bleau, owner of the Sensation Neal Conoley...
Jun 05, 2025•20 min
Red wolves were declared extinct in the wild in 1980. A captive breeding program reintroduced the animal less than a decade later, but it's had mixed results. With fewer than 30 animals left in the wild, all located in an isolated corner of North Carolina, humans are once again attempting to bring the red wolf back from the brink of extinction. This episode originally published on July 11, 2024. We're revisiting it because of ongoing successes in the captive red wolf breeding programs. Featuring...
May 29, 2025•20 min
The Pokémon universe includes wildly popular anime shows, films, video games, and plushies. But Pokémon’s competitive trading card game has a culture all its own. The competition is global. The business associated with it is lucrative and secretive. And both run through an unexpected place: North Carolina. Featuring: Storms Reback, freelance journalist and contributor for The Assembly Brian Gordon, Technology & Innovation reporter for The News & Observer Links: Read Storms' feature about...
May 22, 2025•19 min
For much of the past two years, the debate over campus free speech has been front and center in America. While protests and punishments at private universities have grabbed most of the headlines, public schools have been grappling with the issue as well. That includes the country’s oldest public university: the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. And unlike the Ivy League, what’s happening there could have much broader and lasting first amendment implications. Featuring: Gaby Del Valle ...
May 15, 2025•19 min
Tucked away in rural Chatham County, North Carolina there’s a giant concrete cube with a satellite dish on top of it. Built decades ago, the strange, windowless building is only the tip of an iceberg; below it is a massive bunker designed to withstand a nuclear holocaust. That secure site has become part of local lore and spawned countless conspiracy theories. It may have even inspired the Netflix show Stranger Things . But what’s really going on down there? Featuring: Jay Price, Military and Ve...
May 08, 2025•18 min
In the late 1800s, dozens of utopian communities with radical beliefs and unusual forms of self-government sprung up throughout the United States. And perhaps the most remarkable one of them all, a group of free Black people who were led by a king and a queen, was nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Featuring: Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of Happy Land Fitz Brundage, historian and author of A Socialist Utopia in the New South Links: You can find a transcript of the episode here . The Broadside ...
May 01, 2025•21 min
Last year, over half of all new homes in the US were built in the South. And if you drive through the suburban sprawl of growing Southern cities like Raleigh, North Carolina, you can see them. Sometimes it's the same home. Over and over and over again. In many locales, mass production and cookie-cutter design have made it feel like you could be anywhere. So, how can we reclaim our sense of place, and what exactly is a Southern home? Featuring: Jeremy Markovich, writer of the North Carolina Rabbi...
Apr 24, 2025•22 min
The South is the birthplace of all the big cola brands. Since the first Coca-Cola was poured in Atlanta in 1886, it's become an American icon. For many of us, these drinks are part of key childhood memories. But whether we're loyal to Coke, Pepsi, or something else, we don't drink as much soda as we used to. So why do we care so much about these brands and does soda even matter in this new beverage age? Featuring: Ralph Ashworth, owner of Ashworth Drugs in Cary, NC Sabrina Bengel, managing partn...
Apr 17, 2025•21 min
There are dozens of major Civil War reenactments across the United States each year. They're incredible spectacles filled with cannons, muskets and marching orders. But the most interesting part of it all might just be the people who put on the show. We visited the 160th Anniversary of the Battle of Bentonville in rural eastern North Carolina to find out who these soldiers are and why reenactment culture continues to captivate and mystify Americans. Featuring: Charlie Shelton-Ormond, producer at...
Apr 10, 2025•28 min
For years, the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles has been plagued by long wait times and poor service. It’s a major problem in one of America’s fastest-growing states. And in the age of DOGE and government efficiency, it's generating talk of some dramatic solutions. Featuring: Bradley George , reporter at WUNC Larry Higgs , transportation and commuting reporter at NJ.com and the Star-Ledger Senator Michael Lazarra, representing the NC Senate's 6th District Richard Stradling , transport...
Apr 03, 2025•20 min
The waters surrounding North Carolina’s Outer Banks are so treacherous that they’re known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic. They’ve claimed everything from Blackbeard’s pirate ship to German U-boats. And that dark legacy continues today. Oregon Inlet, a narrow gap near Roanoke Island, is one of the deadliest waterways in the United States. But it’s also an economic lifeline for a small industrial fishing community who must traverse it. Featuring: Emily Cataneo, reporter for The Assembly Molly Tr...
Mar 27, 2025•18 min
If you want to understand America, going to a college football game is a great place to start. In a lot of ways, the culture and history of the sport is a mirror held up to the country itself. But some folks -- especially Asian Americans -- haven’t seen themselves in that reflection until recently. Or so we thought. Because an incredible discovery in North Carolina is rewriting history and changing what we thought was possible in sports. Featuring: Shehan Jeyarajah , national college football wr...
Mar 20, 2025•21 min
Nearly every public school district in North Carolina has fewer students than before the pandemic: part of a larger trend happening across the country. Facing empty classrooms and dwindling dollars, many public school leaders are trying to figure out where all the kids went and what declining public school enrollment could mean for the communities they serve. Featuring: Liz Schlemmer, education reporter for WUNC Alec MacGillis, reporter for ProPublica Links: Check out Liz Schlemmer’s reporting o...
Mar 13, 2025•21 min
For decades, public health advocates have touted the dental health benefits of fluoride. But skepticism, conspiracy theories, and outright fear of fluoridated water have been around for just about as long. And they’re only gaining steam. In the midst of this heated debate, new scientific studies in North Carolina are combating health misinformation and trying to separate fact from fiction in the hope that they just might cool the conversation. Featuring: Sara Israelsen-Hartley , freelance journa...
Mar 06, 2025•20 min
Hurricane Helene wiped out hundreds of roadways in western North Carolina. Now engineers are working to fill the holes the storm left behind. But how do you rebuild a road that’s meant to last in a climate that’s changing quicker than we can keep up? Featuring: Nathan Moneyham , Division Construction Engineer for North Carolina Department of Transportation, Division 13 Matt Lauffer , State Hydraulics Engineer for North Carolina Department of Transportation Lauren Sommer , climate correspondent f...
Feb 27, 2025•19 min
In the 1990s, professional ice hockey was primed for growth. But the NHL had one major problem: geography. In order to expand its footprint, the sport had to move into unlikely warm weather locations with few existing fans. The league eventually expanded to the Sun Belt with mixed early results. But in North Carolina and other Southern states, the NHL has found success with a radical long-term strategy. They've helped build the next generation of hockey fans almost completely from scratch. Featu...
Feb 20, 2025•20 min
To celebrate Black History Month, we're revisiting one of our favorite episodes from last year. Perhaps more than any other artform, the 20th century was shaped by jazz. And piano player and composer Mary Lou Williams was there at nearly every turn. In recent years, historians have documented and dissected her career and its big impact on American music. But the final chapter of her life—spent teaching at Duke University—was shrouded in mystery. Until now. Special thanks to Chris Pattishall for ...
Feb 13, 2025•22 min
North Carolina’s Lumbee Tribe have been pursuing full federal recognition for over 130 years. A campaign promise kept by Donald Trump has given them hope. But it’s also renewed centuries-old questions about who gets to be Native in America. Featuring: Sarah Nagem, editor of the Border Belt Independent John Lowery, Lumbee Tribal Chairman Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz, author of The Indian Card: Who Gets to Be Native in America Links: Check out more reporting from Sarah Nagem and the staff of the Borde...
Feb 06, 2025•21 min
Election Day was nearly three months ago. Since then, every race in the country has been called and certified. Except for one. A single election for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court remains in limbo, and its outcome might have huge ramifications for American democracy. Featuring: Rusty Jacobs, Voting and Election Integrity reporter for WUNC Frank Bruni, contributing writer for The New York Times and author of “ The Age of Grievance ” Links: Check out more of Rusty Jacobs’ reporting her...
Jan 30, 2025•19 min
North Carolina has been cultivating a special relationship with Japan for more than four decades… and the rewards for the American economy are only accelerating. This week, we find out how tax incentives, BBQ, and Bojangles helped make the Tar Heel State the epicenter of Japanese investment in the US. Featuring: Teruhiro "Terry" Kawabe, President and CEO of Morinaga America David Robinson, Honorary Consul of Japan to North Carolina Andy Steinhauer, General Manager at Health & Nutrition North...
Jan 23, 2025•22 min
Throughout the South, state legislatures are adopting and expanding school voucher programs designed to allow parents to use public funds to pay for private school tuition. But this modern day push for school choice is connected to a dark past that recalls America’s long and sometimes forgotten history of resisting integration in the classroom. Featuring: Jennifer Berry Hawes , reporter with ProPublica Crystal Sanders, author of “A Forgotten Migration: Black Southerners, Segregation Scholarships...
Jan 16, 2025•23 min
In 2018, the US Supreme Court ruled that states could legalize sports gambling. Since then, 38 states have taken the plunge, including our home state of North Carolina. The payoff has been lucrative. But it also has a human toll. Featuring: Jason deBruyn, Supervising Editor for Digital News at WUNC Jason Quick, Senior Writer at The Athletic Links: Check out Jason Quick's incredible reporting about gambling addiction . You can find a transcript of this episode here . If you or a loved one need he...
Jan 09, 2025•23 min
On a chilly evening in 1961, a B-52 crashed in rural eastern North Carolina near the town of Goldsboro. Any plane crash is bad, but this one was particularly dangerous because onboard that bomber were two nuclear weapons. The event was perhaps the closest the United States has ever come to accidentally detonating a nuclear bomb—and kicking off a nuclear war. Featuring: Jay Price, Military and Veterans Affairs reporter at WUNC and The American Homefront Project Stephen Schwartz, independent nucle...
Jan 02, 2025•18 min
This week, we visit the small town of Marshall in western North Carolina, a region ravaged by Hurricane Helene earlier this year. But this story isn’t about the storm or climate change or the walls of water that rushed through the Black Mountains in September. It’s about what happened after. How people create systems to help each other. And how the best aspects of humanity can shine in the wake of a disaster. This episode comes to us from Outside/In . Produced by our friends at New Hampshire Pub...
Dec 26, 2024•40 min
In this special holiday episode, we meet the Jewish man from Gastonia, North Carolina who became the world's largest manufacturer of Christmas ornaments and used his power to make his home more tolerant of all religions. This episode comes to us from Jeremy Markovich. Jeremy is the creator of a newsletter and podcast called the North Carolina Rabbit Hole, where he explores the strange and quirky corners of his home state. You can find all of his incredible work at ncrabbithole.com . This story w...
Dec 19, 2024•25 min
On a rainy day in 1979, a photograph was taken of a young girl skateboarding down a street in Fayetteville, North Carolina. 45 years later, that photo went viral with a little help from the most famous skater who ever lived: Tony Hawk. This week, we find out who the mystery girl in the picture was and why the snapshot was so ahead of its time. Featuring: Jeremy Markovich, writer of the North Carolina Rabbit Hole Tony Hawk, skateboarder Shaunda Shane, skateboarder Links: Check out Jeremy's articl...
Dec 12, 2024•19 min
