Podcast Raleigh

Tinu Diver is an attorney, writer, community activist and filmmaker who went from tinkering with a camera to make her first movie in elementary school in Maryland to being featured at the Sundance Film Festival. In between, she graduated from UNC's Creative Writing Program and UNC Law and pursued (and continues to pursue) a number of different interests, including a return to filmmaking. She...

Up until barely a week before North Carolina Theatre 's "9 to 5" opened--its first large production since pandemic restrictions began in 2020--Eric Woodall, the show's director and NCT's Producing Artistic Director, hadn't even seen the faces of all the cast members, since they were still practicing in masks. The precautions, the long layoff, the "what ifs"...

Kristen Hess didn't always knew she wanted to work in architecture, but she always knew she should be in charge. Once she discovered an architect is akin to being the conductor of a symphony--bringing out the best of all the various players to create a piece--she knew it was for her. And once she came to Raleigh to study design at N.C. State, she never left. Now she leads a firm that is helpi...

As with any business venture, when deciding how to approach a project developers have to think about whether or not it's profitable. Gordon Grubb and his team almost always have a second, maybe equally as important issue to ponder: what will their neighbors think? When Grubb left running his family business to start Grubb Ventures in the early 2000s, he did so in part to focus on projects tha...

Have you ever constantly walked or driven passed a piece of property and thought, "You know what would be perfect here?" Sarah Shepherd had that same thought and, with the help of her husband Jeff, has turned withering Boylan Heights house Montford Hall into a stunning boutique hotel and event space: Heights House . We talked to Sarah and Jeff about the history of the property, the proce...

When a pivot during college sent him on a track from studying political science to broadcast journalism, Aaron Thomas already had an idea of where the best place to be a TV reporter might be: at WRAL , the local news station he grew up watching. Having now been a reporter at a few other local new stations outside of North Carolina, Thomas now has an even greater appreciation for the Triangle marke...

Sumit Vohra would likely be successful at whatever business he chose to run--he's smart, hard-working, dedicated to his community and philanthropic. So he chose beer. Or maybe it chose him. What began as a hobby became a side project when he was still working in the tech world. And eventually that side project became today's Lonerider : a Raleigh brewery with 3 locations in the Triangle...

As a child, you could find Carly Jones pretending she was on Star Search (playing the role of both host and contestant), so it's no surprise that she ended up as a performer. She's played to international audiences and still performs music, theatre and opera on stages across the Triangle and beyond. Later came the realization that she is not just passionate about performing, but about th...

Mike Maniscalco grew up and went to college in Buffalo, New York in a time when the Carolina Hurricanes didn’t even exist. His first visit to Raleigh was to see a hockey game....as a fan of the Canes' opponent. But a radio job made him a full-time Raleigh resident, followed by a move to the TV side reporting for the Hurricanes, and now he has become only the second person to call Canes games...

Dr. Lindsay Zanno is the Head of Paleontology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and an associate research professor in biological sciences at N.C. State University. She's also as passionate about educating the public on the scientific process and instilling trust in the people and institutions who test and research as she is her own chosen field of paleontology. You can sense h...

Trying to learn all about Thomas Sayre 's life and works in one podcast episode? Impossible! So we're back with Part 2 of our conversation with Sayre, who has been incredibly influential in shaping what Raleigh looks like today. Be sure to check out Part 1 of the interview , where we discuss his relationship with Steve Schuster and their design firm Clearscapes. In Part 2, we explore how...

If someone asked you to close your eyes and picture Raleigh, there's a pretty good chance Thomas Sayre will be involved in the image your mind conjures up. Maybe it's the Shimmer Wall on the back of the Raleigh Convention Center. Perhaps Gyre (read: the rings) out at the North Carolina Museum of Art. Possibly one the countless buildings his firm Clearscapes has designed. We linked up wit...

Did Cassandra Deck-Brown believe she would ascend to the role of Chief when she first joined the Raleigh Police Department in 1987? Not necessarily. But she certainly didn't rule out that possibility, a show of confidence she flashed in her first interview to join the department. In 2013 she became the first Black woman to attain the role of Raleigh Police Chief, yet another in a long line of...

Just like it's hard to study any kind of music in American history without finding some tie to North Carolina, it's hard to have followed any kind of music in North Carolina over the past 3 decades and not found some tie to David Menconi . He was a music writer and critic for the News & Observer for almost 30 years, and in that time became as much a part of the music scene as he was...

Given the chance, Damon Circosta would love to talk to you about his recreational pursuits: surfing, frisbee, walking and, currently, slack lining. Fortunately he is equally passionate about his work as the Executive Director of the AJ Fletcher Foundation , a long-standing organization in Raleigh that originally mostly benefitted the arts but now serves a broader purpose of supports an array of ch...

She's an athlete. A mother. A Black woman. A World Cup Champion. As Jess McDonald puts it: "I fall under a huge amount of categories." And all those categories have been highlighted in the past year and a half of competition, where McDonald has done everything from celebrate her sport's highest achievements with her son, to kneeling during the national anthem with her teammates...

Be honest: prior to the last couple years, did you know who was on your North Carolina State Board of Elections? (You don't have to confess it out loud.) For a number of reasons, voting, elections, ballots and how they're all organized and run have come under higher scrutiny than any time we can remember. Someone who has thought about these issues for a number of years now--even prior to...

When a resignation created a vacancy on the Raleigh City Council, 54 individuals applied to be the next District D representative. The field was narrowed to a handful of folks who participated in public interviews conducted by the sitting council members, and of that group Raleigh native Stormie Forte was chosen to join the council. Once sworn in, she became the first Black female city council mem...

Is 2020 both the most challenging  and  the most fulfilling year a journalist could have? Robyn Tomlin doesn't speak for all journalists, but as the President and Editor of the News & Observer and the Durham Herald-Sun and the southeast regional editor for nearly a dozen McClatchy newspapers, she can take the temperature of a newsroom.  We talked to her about her role as editor, how she g...

Mickey Fearn is a delightfully charming man to talk to...but that's not why people keep calling him. Cities, governments, parks departments and college administrators all want to know what secrets Mickey has about solving community engagement and re-thinking city and park planning to reflect the needs and desires of the whole community. The latest to make him an offer is the city of Raleigh,...

Greear Webb is a rising sophomore in the Morehead-Cain program at UNC-Chapel Hill. A year ago he graduated from Sanderson High School and at that time he had already organized a Town Hall on gun violence in the wake of the Parkland, Florida School school shooting. This led to the founding of his organization YAP! (Young Americans Protest). Now, in addition to continuing his studies online while pr...

Oscar Carmona started in January as the Director of Raleigh's Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Department after a long career working in parks in Texas. He has a passion not only for parks, but for local governments that have the flexibility and budgets to do big things with their park systems. We talked to him about learning his way around the Raleigh Parks system, how the city'...

If you're a foster child aging out of care, a newly arrived immigrant, or a domestic abuse victim fleeing a bad situation, finding a home can be hard enough. Filling that home is a whole different challenge. Seeing this need in our community, Jackie Craig helped found The Green Chair Project , which take donations of all kinds of furniture and housewares and provides all kinds of home furnish...

Eric Dorfman is an author, a professor, a scientist and in early 2020 he became the Director and CEO of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. He also sits on the Executive Board of the International Council of Museums. He has previously served as the Director of Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and he has studied and worked and lived in California, Australia and New Zealan...

When Erin Terry started doing open mic stand-up comedy just before turning 30, she noticed one thing quickly and clearly: there wasn't enough space for women. So Erin consulted with some other female comics, and decided she was going to carve out her own space. What started in 2015 as one show, and then a once-a-month show, and then more shows, eventually became Eyes Up Here , the comedy ente...