Until this current school year, student enrollment at UNC-Asheville had dropped in each of the previous five years—down 25 percent from where admissions officials want it to be. The drop mirrors national trends. My guests today are Marcio Moreno, UNC-Asheville's associate vice chancellor of admission and financial aid; and Michael Strysick, head of the university’s communications and marketing. We talk through the university’s Access Asheville program, which waives all tuition and fees for North...
Oct 30, 2023•39 min•Ep. 101
The Resonant Rogues allowed The Overlook to use their "Maker's Song" as the show theme. It's only fitting to have Sparrow and Keith, the heart of the band, as guests for the show's 100th episode—closing a week of episodes recorded Sept. 27 in front of an audience at the Tina McGuire Theatre, inside the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts. Here, Sparrow and Keith tell how two itinerant musicians stopped in Asheville long enough to find each other and build lives together around their music. We...
Oct 20, 2023•33 min•Ep. 100
We continue our week of episodes recorded in front of an audience at The Overlook Live with Asheville Symphony Orchestra music director Darko Butorac. We talk about how the orchestra pivoted this season after city officials deemed Thomas Wolfe Auditorium uninhabitable because of outdated and nonfunctional infrastructure. I ask why this orchestra only performs monthly programs and why he and other symphonic orchestra directors don’t look to collaborate more with contemporary rock (special nod to ...
Oct 18, 2023•32 min•Ep. 99
We launch a special week of episodes recorded from The Overlook Live with a deep dive and dissection into Asheville’s commitment to racial reparations. Three years after city leaders committed to a formal reparations resolution, the commission tasked with drafting specific proposals is still debating what reparations even means. My guests are Dr. Dwight Mullen, a retired UNC-Asheville history professor who co-chairs the city’s reparations commission, Torre Garrison of the Reparations Stakeholder...
Oct 16, 2023•46 min•Ep. 98
Violinist Andrew Finn Magill has an eclectic, genre-crossing new album called “The Polaris Project.” Horror writer Jamieson Ridenhour is the writer and co-creator of the popular fiction podcast "Palimpsest." The two Asheville artists split this episode of The Overlook. Ridenhour and “Palimpsest” actress and co-creator Hayley Heninger celebrate the upcoming fifth season of their show with a performance Oct. 26 at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts. Magill launches his album with an Oct. 27 co...
Oct 13, 2023•40 min•Ep. 97
Just last year, roughly four out of five Asheville-area Black children tested below grade level in reading proficiency. My guests today are Ashley Allen and Jess McLean, co-executive directors at Read 2 Succeed, one of a handful of Asheville nonprofits supplementing the reading education happening at under-resourced schools. Read 2 Succeed is particularly focused on closing what it calls “the race-based opportunity gap—not an achievement gap—through community-powered literacy programming.” We ta...
Oct 11, 2023•38 min•Ep. 96
You’d have to be a shut-in not to notice the prevalence of panhandling in Asheville. It’s become so visible along Interstate on-ramps and off-ramps that, early this summer, a committee of city councilwomen proposed penalizing sympathetic motorists who stop to give money to panhandlers. A public outcry compelled them to walk back that proposal and soften other language in a pending update to the city’s panhandling ordinance. But Asheville’s civic, business and tourism leaders still see a crisis o...
Oct 09, 2023•30 min•Ep. 95
Andrew Scotchie is one of Asheville’s homegrown musical successes. He was an active busker, he played in local clubs long before he was old enough to legally get in the door and even started his own successful knockoff of the popular Bonaroo Festival, called Barnaroo. A few months ago, Scotchie released his fifth album of eclectic Appalachian music, called “Love is Enough.” Scotchie talks here about his early life in music, recounts the classic years of his Barnaroo Festival in Weaverville and t...
Oct 06, 2023•32 min•Ep. 94
Social politics are making inroads into public schools. State legislatures, particularly those controlled by Republicans, are mandating that elections for school boards become partisan, and they’re drafting legislation to censor books available in school libraries, the curricula taught in classrooms and even classroom conversations. This is the second in a two-part conversation with board members George Sieburg and Amy Ray of the Asheville City Schools , and Ann Franklin and Amy Churchill of Bun...
Oct 04, 2023•32 min•Ep. 93
There’s no glory in serving on a school board, at least not in North Carolina. State legislatures control your policies and purse strings. Parents sling arrows at you online and at public meetings. There are efforts to turn school board elections into overtly partisan affairs and pass legislation forcing teachers away from certain books, curricula and even classroom conversations. This is the first in a two-part conversation with board members George Sieburg and Amy Ray of the Asheville City Sch...
Oct 02, 2023•37 min•Ep. 92
In this dual episode, we have separate conversations with dancemakers Vanessa Owen and Gavin Stewart and emerging rap artist Luicya. Stewart Owen Dance makes duets, dances for larger ensembles and outdoor pieces, and collaborates with other artists. They're in residency next week at Trillium Arts in Mars Hill and performing next April at the Wortham Center in Asheville. We discuss how the pandemic changed their approach to their art and careers. You won’t find much online from the emerging local...
Sep 22, 2023•37 min•Ep. 91
The Steep Canyon Rangers embody and evangelize the Asheville sound as much as any musical artist. They’ve certainly had success with it. Their collaborations with the actor, comedian and banjo player Steve Martin put them on the national map, and they won a Grammy Award on their own 10 years ago for best bluegrass album. Now, more than two decades into their career, the departure of co-founding vocalist and guitarist Woody Platt has pushed the Steep Canyon Rangers into new territory and compelle...
Sep 20, 2023•38 min•Ep. 90
If Asheville crowned a reigning native queen, Libby Kyles would certainly fall into the city’s royalty. She has lived all over the city, led educational efforts here as a teacher, administrator and nonprofit leader and been an unwavering voice around inequities she pins on race. In this conversation, she explains how the Asheville of today is different than the city of her youth. We get her thoughts on the city’s reparations process and run through her life’s work as seen through the vital progr...
Sep 18, 2023•40 min•Ep. 89
It’s no secret—Asheville has a housing crisis. Among the strategies to combat that, city planners are looking more closely at developing what’s called “middle housing.” These are townhouses, duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and smaller apartment complexes—essentially almost anything other than traditional single-family homes. My guest today is Candra Teshome, a longrange planner for the City of Asheville. We talk about an extensive study the city conducted this year that looked at middle housing,...
Sep 15, 2023•26 min•Ep. 88
One of the most pitched rivalries in all of sports is probably taking place in your neighborhood: Tennis players vs. pickleball players. Outdoor public courts that tennis players had to themselves since the dawn of history are now the site of community turf wars. Today's episode features representatives from the Asheville Tennis Association and Asheville Pickleball Association. There are only 11 asphalt tennis courts in Asheville’s parks and recreation system. Pickleballers have made those court...
Sep 13, 2023•40 min•Ep. 87
Rebekah Todd is a seasoned songwriter and performer who moved from Wilmington to Asheville two years ago. On Aug. 22, she posted a video to social media talking about unwanted communication from an unnamed festival promoter, the blame he placed on her for the festival's cancellation and the avalanche of backlash that came her way. Hundreds of people commented on and shared it. Even before this episode, Rebekah made social media posts going back to March touching on other experiences she had with...
Sep 11, 2023•36 min•Ep. 86
North Carolina legislators recently legalized sports betting in the state. Once enacted, that could funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue each year to the athletics programs of UNC-Asheville and Western Carolina and Appalachian State universities. Justin McGuire, a reporter with Mountain Xpress who has covered this development, talks about the forces that led to legalization and how concerns about gambling addiction shaped it. We also talk about the broader cultural tipping point of...
Sep 08, 2023•26 min•Ep. 85
Passenger trains haven’t rolled through Asheville since 1975, but there’s a serious plan from the North Carolina Department of Transportation to bring them back. Daniel Walton's recent story for Mountain Xpress connects the tracks between three decades of studies and recent federal infrastructure funding to a planned 140-mile route from Asheville east to Salisbury. We talk about the environmental and cultural factors playing into the rekindled interest in passenger rail, how the proposed line ou...
Sep 06, 2023•23 min•Ep. 84
When the Pactiv Evergreen paper mill sounded its final whistle on June 8, 115 years of continuous operation in Canton came to an end. 1,100 jobs were lost and some heavy questions remain about what will happen to those people, along with the 185-acre site and its buildings. Cory Vaillancourt and Holly Kays, reporters with the Smoky Mountain News in Waynesville, have led local coverage of the plant’s closure. We talk about the business trends that led to the closure, the environmental impacts and...
Sep 04, 2023•39 min•Ep. 83
The Overlook Live with Matt Peiken is my show's first event in front of a studio audience. It happens Wednesday, Sept. 27, inside the Tina McGuire Theater at the Wortham Center. I’ll be recording three episodes in one night: The Resonant Rogues talk about and preview songs from their upcoming album. A panel discussion lays out where we are and aren’t when it comes to reparations for Asheville’s Black community. Asheville Symphony Orchestra music director Darko Butorac talks with us about an upco...
Aug 09, 2023•1 min
Marcy Gallagher and her husband owned Kilwin’s Fudge and Ice Cream in downtown Asheville for 13 years before handing the store off during the pandemic. Then Gallagher did something a little crazy: She wrote a piece of musical theater from scratch. She found a composer, a director and a cast, then booked a theater. “At the Cafe” premieres inside the McGuire Theater at the Wortham Center Aug. 18-27. We’ll talk about Gallagher’s commitment, investment and bringing her vision to reality. We’ll also ...
Aug 04, 2023•31 min•Ep. 82
The renovations needed at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium were well-known for many years to anyone who’s worked or performed there. Now, with the heating and air conditioning system out of order, the auditorium is closed at least until next spring and possibly longer. That’s forced a scramble to move some shows into the neighboring Harrah’s Cherokee Center. Still, the economic impact of lost shows is expected to be in the millions. Chris Corl, Director of Community and Regional Entertainment Facilities ...
Aug 02, 2023•37 min•Ep. 81
Homes and land with the highest market values are systemically under-assessed and under-taxed, while properties at the lowest market values are over-taxed. That's at the heart of findings uncovered by Asheville urban planner and consultant Joe Minicozzi. His research shows that’s true in Buncombe County and the 17 other counties in Western North Carolina. We walk through Minicozzi's research, the responses he says he received from county officials and the financial and social costs of these ineq...
Jul 31, 2023•44 min•Ep. 80
In college, Lauren Yero found a way to marry up her interests in creative writing and ecological science. A handful of years later, Yero wed both those commitments into her debut novel for young adults, titled “Under This Forgetful Sky.” Yero lives with her husband and two young kids on a budding hobby farm in Madison County. We talk about threading her concerns with climate change into a near-future fantasy set in Chile. We also get into the thick of her creative process—turning disparate kerne...
Jul 20, 2023•28 min•Ep. 79
In 2022, less than 3 percent of North Carolina workers belonged to a union. Only South Carolina had a smaller percentage. Still, in Asheville, food and beverage workers are organizing and seeing momentum. My guests today are Jen Hampton of Asheville Food and Beverage United ; and Ariana Lingerfeldt, a chef at Green Sage Cafe South Asheville, who this past March led a successful effort to unionize that staff. We talk about their separate paths toward organizing, overcoming anti-union propaganda a...
Jul 19, 2023•44 min•Ep. 78
The Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority just approved a budget of nearly $40 million for the next fiscal year. By state law, the TDA will steer about a third of that into a sort of discretionary bucket called the Tourism Product Development Fund. Many in the community have different ideas for how that money should be spent. This is the second half of our two-part conversation with Vic Isley, president and CEO of the TDA. We dig into that TPDF. I ask Isley why hoteliers and other vacati...
Jul 18, 2023•24 min•Ep. 77
This is the first in a two-part conversation with Vic Isley, president and CEO of the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority . We roll out Isley’s own background in tourism marketing, the TDA’s evolving priorities and how Isley sees the TDA as a partner in diversifying Asheville’s economy. I push back on Isley’s definition of who encompasses Asheville’s creative community. Isley also addresses this question: Can there be too much tourism in Asheville? Help "The Overlook with Matt Peiken" ...
Jul 17, 2023•33 min•Ep. 76
The Overlook spent last weekend at The Big Crafty . Matt Peiken roamed the floors and talked to local artisans, asking "How do makers make it work in Asheville?" A handful of makers offer up their stories, lessons learned and advice for other makers considering a move to Asheville. Voices in this episode are Jen Toledo, Mary Labianca, Kimberly Obee, Ashley Gandiza, Laura Wood, Edwin Salas, Bill Green, Maxx Feist and Cara Steinbuschel. Here are their Instagram handles: @jentoledoart, @infinitesel...
Jul 14, 2023•24 min•Ep. 75
Hendersonville author Meagan Lucas is an emerging voice in the literary niche called Grit Lit. Her newest collection of stories is titled “Here in the Dark.” Much like her earlier work, these stories center on Appalachian women of simple means and complicated lives. We talk about Lucas' drive to portray women of this region with truth, dignity and complexity. Meagan also talks about how her own traumas play into her writing and how she maintains relationships with family members who aren’t thril...
Jul 13, 2023•27 min•Ep. 74
The North Carolina legislature has voted to turn school board elections into partisan affairs. That means, in Buncombe County, future candidates will have to run in specific districts as opposed to one at-large pool, likely diluting Asheville’s core advantage of population. Andrew Jones of AVL Watchdog , my guest today, breaks down the coming changes and their potential impacts. We talk about how new district maps could be drawn and also pull the lens back to the broader incursions by social con...
Jul 12, 2023•28 min•Ep. 73
