Are you wondering why Asheville lacks affordable housing? For answers, step into the February gathering of the Goodwill Industries Business Advisory Council . The Overlook brings you the illuminating Q&A session, featuring panelists are Robin Cape of EXP Realty ; Andy Barnett, the executive director of Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity ; and Anna Zuevskaya, executive director of Asheville-Buncombe Community Land Trust . Photo credit: St. Louis Habitat For Humanity. Support the show Support...
Mar 01, 2023•25 min•Ep. 13
New hotels are blooming in and around Asheville like wildflowers in the spring. Some are new construction. Other projects, particularly in the River Arts District, plan to repurpose older buildings. But the connecting thread is undeniable—this city’s dependence and deference to tourism is only deepening. Today’s guest, Jason Sandford, is the founding journalist of AshVegas , who now channels most of his work through the AshVegas Substack newsletter . He talks with host Matt Peiken about the poli...
Feb 28, 2023•36 min•Ep. 12
Sarah Honosky, the city government reporter with the Asheville Citizen-Times , has extensively covered the varied angles of homelessness in Asheville. In this conversation with host Matt Peiken, Honosky details the goals of city and county officials to cut the city’s growing population of the unhoused by half. We also go through a report calling for major structural change in how local officials handle the issue and talk about the status of plans to convert former hotels into permanent housing. ...
Feb 27, 2023•26 min•Ep. 11
Our Friday audio residency from the stage of Story Parlor , in West Asheville, continues honoring Black History Month with performances from Kelly Morris, Mildred Barya and Jasmin Morrell. 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 The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band T...
Feb 24, 2023•28 min•Ep. 10
Luzene Hill didn’t think of herself as an artist until well into midlife. Today, she’s untethered by discipline in her feminist and Native American matrilineal expression. Hill is an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians living in Cullowhee. A series of recent drawings and a new performance video are at the core of “Revelate,” an exhibition of Hill’s work on view through May 15 at the Asheville Art Museum. In today’s episode, Hill talks about her formative years in Atlanta, her...
Feb 23, 2023•25 min•Ep. 9
It can be frustrating to think these two problems coexist in our community — food scarcity and food waste. Food Connection is an Asheville nonprofit addressing both sides. Today’s guests are founder Flori Pate and Marisha MacMorran, the executive director. They call their work food rescue, delivering prepared foods to residential centers and individual homes. We talk about the details of that work, their creative pivot during the pandemic and their ongoing struggle to meet the community’s needs....
Feb 22, 2023•26 min•Ep. 8
Sally Kestin of AVL Watchdog has done extensive reporting showing Asheville City Council members have skirted the spirit, if not the letter, of North Carolina’s open meetings laws for years by holding closed-door sessions in groups of two or three. I talk with Sally Kestin about her reporting on this issue, what’s potentially happening in these meetings outside of public view and the effects on a public kept in the dark. City Council just last week announced they would begin holding so-called “w...
Feb 21, 2023•29 min•Ep. 7
Asheville Police have been public about their challenges recruiting and keeping officers. Daniel Walton, today’s guest, has covered the travails of the Asheville Police as a reporter and city editor with Mountain Xpress . Host Matt Peiken talks with Walton about the department’s checkered history both on the streets and within its ranks. Walton also details some of the factors keeping Asheville from making more headway in its recruitment and the department enlisting outside help. Support the sho...
Feb 20, 2023•29 min•Ep. 6
The Overlook is devoting Friday episodes to the Asheville community in the form of "audio residencies." Our first block of Friday episodes are curated by Erin Hallagan Clare, the founding director of Story Parlor . It's a West Asheville that opened in 2022 and has quickly become a go-to hub for storytelling in a variety of stripes. In this first episode of the residency, Clare spotlights poet Glenis Redmond in a performance from the Story Parlor stage in December 2022. Stay tuned to the end of t...
Feb 17, 2023•24 min
In the pantheon of rock operas, “Tommy,” “The Wall” and “Jesus Christ Superstar” come first to mind on the list of classic titles. Could we someday add to that list “Happyland?” Host Matt Peiken talks with Zach Knox and Brayden Dickerson, the Asheville creators of “Happyland,” an ensemble-cast musical premiering this month at the Magnetic Theatre. We talk with about the theatrical nature of their band, Smooth Goose, the creative evolution of the “Happyland” music and how this project is influenc...
Feb 16, 2023•19 min•Ep. 3
Hospice care in the United States is largely defined and shaped by health insurers and Medicare. The Center for Conscious Living and Dying , set to open this spring, is a new nonprofit in Swannanoa driven to reposition hospice as a communal passage. Host Matt Peiken talks with Dr. Aditi Sethi, the center's founding director; and Hannah Fowler, a registered nurse and the center’s director of education. We talk about their vision of the fusion of life and death and how, through the center, they’re...
Feb 15, 2023•26 min•Ep. 4
If you travel Merrimon Avenue in North Asheville with any regularity, you probably have a strong opinion about it. The road diet of last fall cut four driving lanes to two with a center turn lane and new bike lanes on the margins. Host Matt Peiken talks with Mike Sule, the founding director of Asheville on Bikes . Some people applaud the lobbying he and his group did to bring the road diet forward. Others left fuming in midday single-lane traffic jams likely hold a different view of Sule’s effor...
Feb 14, 2023•31 min•Ep. 2
For every question Asheville officials have answered about what happened with the city's water system over the holiday calamity, another hangs in the air, unanswered. Host Matt Peiken talks with AVL Watchdog 's John Boyle, the dean of shoe-leather journalism in Asheville, about the checkered history of the city’s water system; how the city handled public communications in the latest failure, which left tens of thousands of residents and businesses without water over Christmas week; and the road ...
Feb 13, 2023•31 min•Ep. 1
Imagine two of public radio’s most popular shows— The Daily and Fresh Air —come to Asheville, N.C., meet up with a doula and have a baby. That baby is The Overlook, a new daily podcast all about Asheville, from award-winning journalist Matt Peiken. 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 The Overlook theme ...
Jan 31, 2023•1 min
