2023 is the North Carolina Year of the Trail. It’s also the 100th anniversary of the Carolina Mountain Club . So the timing is right for this gathering of leaders of three local trail advocacy organizations to talk about their work, their challenges and what’s ahead. My guests are Tom Weaver, president of the Carolina Mountain Club; Rebekah Robinson, the assistant director of programs for Conserving Carolina ; and Marcia Bromberg, president of the board of the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Tra...
Jul 11, 2023•36 min•Ep. 72
Asheville’s public school teachers and staff are in an existential battle for greater pay. That fight is also happening with pre-K childcare and education, where wages are often comparable to the fast-food industry. Throughout Buncombe County, a coalition of learning centers, nonprofit advocacy groups and business interests hopes to boost regional and state funding. Today's guests are Marcia Whitney, president and CEO of Verner Center for Early Learning; and Greg Borom, Director of Advocacy for ...
Jul 06, 2023•34 min•Ep. 71
North Carolina hasn’t legalized the growth or sale of marijuana yet, but the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, on the Qualla Boundary, are a sovereign nation. Two years ago, the Tribal Council approved the growth and sale of medicinal marijuana for Tribal members and just last month opened their program to anyone living in North Carolina, though its dispensary hasn't opened yet. Jennifer Emert, an investigative reporter with WLOS-TV, recently produced a three-part series for the station about th...
Jul 05, 2023•34 min•Ep. 70
On the U.S. Independence Day, we fittingly turn to baseball and our first conversation with Asheville Tourists manager Nate Shaver. We talk about his path from having aspirations on the field to his current aspirations in the dugout. He details the day-to-day role of managers at his level, what personnel directors with the Houston Astros dictate from above and how he and his coaching colleagues strive to support their players in ways that aren’t necessarily reflected in their stats. Also, Shaver...
Jul 04, 2023•28 min•Ep. 69
Local teachers and staff had asked Buncombe County commissioners for a 7 percent pay raise. Commissioners recently approved a budget that gives them a 2 percent bump. My guests today are Lissa Pedersen, an art teacher at Leicester Elementary School and vice president of the Buncombe County Association of Educators; and Timothy Lloyd, a custodian at Asheville Middle School and incoming president for the Asheville City Association of Educators. Pedersen and Lloyd talk about their reactions to the ...
Jul 03, 2023•34 min•Ep. 68
Michael Hayes was serving his fifth term in prison when an epiphany struck. He had never acknowledged the trauma he grew up with, let alone worked through it. The process of doing so changed his life, and he focused on helping others do the same. Hayes founded Umoja Health, Wellness and Justice Collective , a Black-run nonprofit in Asheville devoted to disrupting generational trauma for people in and out of prison, along with school-age youth. In this conversation, he details his "healing journe...
Jun 22, 2023•38 min•Ep. 67
Scores of Asheville minors get into legal trouble every year, and Buncombe Alternatives is working to keep them out of the judicial system and put them back on a positive track. Karen Peerson, the executive director; and Juan Holladay, director of program services and community development, with Buncombe Alternatives. We’ll talk about teens who come to them from inside and outside the court system, the details of their community service through this program and how restorative justice looks thro...
Jun 21, 2023•33 min•Ep. 66
Investigative journalist Karen Zatkulak produced a recent three-part series on North Carolina's evolving gun laws for WLOS-TV. We talk about the magnitude of the North Carolina legislature doing away with any required permits to purchase a handgun. We go through the efficacy and differing approaches to background checks, the influence of the NRA and the absolutism of those who regard the Second Amendment of the US Constitution as sacrosanct. Support the show Support The Overlook by joining our P...
Jun 20, 2023•33 min•Ep. 65
Asheville's rising rate of violent crime inspired US Congressman Chuck Edwards, a Republican representing Western North Carolina, to convene what he billed an 'Anti-Crime Summit.' The forum happened this past Friday at Ferguson Hall, on the main campus of A-B Tech. The Overlook brings you this edited version, focusing largely on voices from Asheville. The complete, two-hour forum is available to our Patreon supporters . You’ll hear about the roots and underlying causes behind the spike in crime,...
Jun 19, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 64
Lorrie Pande has spent her career in the scenes and behind the scenes of the performing arts, mostly in the theater. And for reasons that, even now, aren’t entirely clear, Pande felt compelled to create a theatrical musical about the life of artist and naturalist John Jay Audubon. “The American Woodsman” premieres June 23 at the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts. Pande talks about her path from Chicago to South Florida to Asheville, what led her to Audubon’s work and story and marshaling he...
Jun 15, 2023•29 min•Ep. 63
Affordable housing is an increasingly rare commodity in Asheville, but city staff working in housing are turning to one weapon in the fight to develop affordable homes—land the city owns. Sasha Vrtunski, Affordable Housing Officer with Asheville's Community Development Division, breaks down the city's recent $4.3 million investment in five affordable housing projects. She also talks about updating the city’s affordable housing plan and the criteria for selecting buyers and renters outside the ca...
Jun 14, 2023•31 min•Ep. 62
About 23,000 people take classes every year through A-B Tech . As tuition and student debts everywhere rise hand in hand, students across the demographic spectrum are turning to technical and community colleges. Today’s guest is Terry Brasier, who has spent 10 years as the college’s vice president for student services. We talk about how A-B Tech has evolved to meet the broadening backgrounds and goals of today’s students, its partnerships in a variety of industries to produce employment-ready gr...
Jun 13, 2023•30 min•Ep. 61
Hundreds of teachers, school staff and board members, parents and even students rallied at Buncombe County Commission hearings as recently as last week. They’re calling on county officials to meet living-wage standards by raising local supplements to match other North Carolina districts with high costs of living. Greg Parlier, a recent addition to the reporting staff of Mountain Xpress, breaks down the stalemate over salaries within Asheville City and Buncombe County school districts, the politi...
Jun 12, 2023•32 min•Ep. 60
Nathan Ballingrud, a 1989 graduate of Asheville High School, is a venerated dark fantasy novelist with two collections of short stories and a novel adapted into a movie. His new novel, “The Strange,” is set almost a century ago but in a world—or, rather, worlds—we can only envision. Ballingrud talks about his path to writing, setting the futuristic elements of “The Strange” in our familiar past and how an author in his 50s took on the vantage and voice of a teenaged girl as the book’s central ch...
Jun 08, 2023•28 min•Ep. 59
The Asheville Watchdog has published a series of stories dissecting various issues plaguing downtown. One of the best in the series is from journalist Tom Fiedler, our guest today. His story probes why law enforcement, city officials and nonprofits face such a challenge with the effects of meth and fentanyl addiction. Among other elements of our conversation, Fielder gets to the crux of what he sees as a key roadblock for Asheville—questions of leadership and its state-mandated form of governmen...
Jun 07, 2023•34 min•Ep. 58
In the second of our two-part conversation, Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer addresses her take and the city’s approaches to a number of big challenges. We also talk about Asheville’s formal commitment to reparations and where the city is in its assessment of the water outages Asheville experienced last December. Help "The Overlook with Matt Peiken" podcast reach its very reachable goal: Just $1,000 in monthly contributions by Election Day. Membership at our Patreon campaign starts at just $5/mo...
Jun 06, 2023•28 min•Ep. 57
By North Carolina constitutional law, mayors count as just another vote on the city council and have no singular authority to enact initiatives or manage the city. But residents and city staff expect their mayors to show leadership and vision, along with an authority that goes beyond their constitutional purview. And when things go wrong, mayors are often the first target of outrage. In the first of a two-part conversation, Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer defines her leadership when all the leg...
Jun 05, 2023•34 min•Ep. 56
Melvin AC Howell traces his obsession with hip-hop street dance as early as 9 years old. His parents couldn’t relate to it, nor could anyone in his hometown of Morganton, NC. But when he found himself living out of his car not all that long ago, Howell said he climbed his way out through dance. Now living in Asheville, Howell is about to stage new work through a residency with Trillium Arts in Mars Hill. We talk about his instinctive, improvisational approach to movement, building self-confidenc...
May 25, 2023•34 min•Ep. 55
The I-26 Connector carries the long promise of a clean, multimodal, locally dedicated artery. Today's guest is Jason Sandford of the AsheVegas Hot Sheet . He’s well-versed on the detours and delays, promises and politics of I-26. He’ll fill us in on the history of the Connector and where the project stands, the economic interests at play and how community feedback and pushback have shaped its direction. Support the show Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign ! Advertise your event ...
May 24, 2023•31 min•Ep. 54
The Asheville Airport is at high altitude these days. The airport served more than 1.8 million passengers in 2022—a record-breaking year by 29 percent—and is about to begin construction to expand its terminal from seven to 12 gates. Lew Bleiweis, in his 14th year as the airport’s president and CEO, talks with host Matt Peiken about the airport’s booming business and coming expansion. We also discuss how complicated it is for regional airports to add destination cities and why the Asheville Airpo...
May 23, 2023•34 min•Ep. 53
The trash dotting Asheville’s streets, riverbeds and freeway underpasses has seemingly grown so bad, even TV news is devoting time to it. But no local reporter has dived deeper into the proverbial dumpster than today's guest, Jessica Wakeman of the Mountain Xpress. We discuss what she found in her reporting, beneath the surface of the trash we see to root out the myriad sources, the disparate agencies and people tasked with cleaning it up and some of the social and cultural forces at play. Suppo...
May 22, 2023•31 min•Ep. 52
Two quick items in this bonus episode: A huge thank-you to our Story Parlor and founder Erin Hallagan Clare for holding down our first audio residency. Also, we're launching a quick-hit daily newsletter of local headlines called "First Look." Subscribe for free at podavl.com/newsletter . Support the show Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign ! Advertise your event on The Overlook . Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverlook Listen and Subscribe: All epis...
May 19, 2023•2 min
Chelsea Labate is an incredibly gifted and giving songwriter and poet. Even before the pandemic, she began experiencing psychotic episodes that required hospitalization. They eventually compelled her to sell her Asheville home and move in with her parents in Florida. She also has made an array of music and poetry inspired and ignited by her struggles. Now back in Asheville, Labate talks with host Matt Peiken about how her episodes have fed her creativity and performs some of her newer work. Supp...
May 18, 2023•29 min•Ep. 51
Asheville For All is a new nonprofit run by volunteers, but it’s addressing a need in Asheville that goes back decades—developing more affordable housing. Andrew Paul and John DeRusso, two of the founding volunteers behind Asheville For All, talk about their political advocacy, the resistance to add more housing often coming from existing homeowners and how they’re making the case for investment from the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority. Support the show Support The Overlook by join...
May 17, 2023•31 min•Ep. 50
Buncombe County District Attorney Todd Williams He won’t discuss the Aston Park case directly because it’s still active. But in the second of a two-part conversation, Williams does talk in broad policy and gives an analogy about a case his department handled several years ago. We also talk about the evolution of Williams' approach to the job, including his view on seeking the death penalty, and Williams lends context to how his office handles charges related to vagrancy. Todd Williams provided t...
May 16, 2023•26 min•Ep. 49
It's rare when an elected official, let alone someone in the position of district attorney, initiates an interview with a journalist. But Todd Williams isn't the stereotypical prosecutor. In the first of a two-part conversation with Matt Peiken, Williams talks about his path from social justice attorney to prosecutor and discusses perhaps his most controversial case since winning office in 2015—the assault of Johnny Rush at the hands of Asheville Police officer Christopher Hickman and the eventu...
May 15, 2023•35 min•Ep. 48
This week's Story Parlor residency invites local poets Sebastian Matthews and Marie Harris to share some of their work, and a bit about their collaborative and creative processes, in advance of the May 11 event, Jazz Hybrid Presents: An evening of poetry and music. Support the show Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign ! Advertise your event on The Overlook . Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverlook Listen and Subscribe: All episodes of The Overlook Th...
May 11, 2023•32 min•Ep. 47
Margaret Curtis’s paintings are gorgeous and lush and haunting, filled with allegory, historical references and connections to what she calls cultural collapse. In this episode, we talk about the personal and communal trauma informing her work, her subversive commentary as torches for feminism and climate change and the balancing beam she walks in her work between darkness and beauty. Curtis lives in Tryon and has a solo show running through May 27 at Tracey Morgan Gallery in Asheville’s South S...
May 10, 2023•32 min•Ep. 46
Keynon Lake is a third-generation Asheville native and the founding director of My Daddy Taught Me That . It’s a nonprofit born from the values Lake attributes to his father, Bennie Lake, and a mission to pass them down to Black youth. Keynon Lake talks about what he learned from his parents, his program’s evolution and growth and the challenges of instilling the bedrocks of his father’s influence to the Black youth of today. Support the show Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign ...
May 09, 2023•35 min•Ep. 45
For 30 years in United State politics, North Carolina US Senator Jesse Helms set the bar for this country’s social conservatism. Helms was unabashed in his opposition to civil rights, gay rights, disability rights, environmentalism, feminism, affirmative action and access to abortion. Today, one of his granddaughters lives in Asheville and is doing what she can to rebuke his legacy. Ellen Gaddy is using the Helms lineage as a pulpit to fight for causes her grandfather opposed—chiefly women’s bod...
May 08, 2023•30 min•Ep. 44
