Tidewater Talk

This week on Tidewater Talk, Co and Brodie caught up on a few big local stories across Coastal Virginia. We talked about the groundbreaking for the new junior sailor barracks towers in downtown Newport News, a major housing project set to replace Huntington Hall, and we also dug into news that Suffolk has been selected as the first Hampton Roads community for Amazon drone delivery. If you’re curio...

This week on Tidewater Talk, we sat down with Al Harris, founder and executive director of the COOL Foundation — short for Counted Out and Overlooked. Al shared his powerful journey from being incarcerated at 16 and spending 21 years in prison to coming home and building a mentorship nonprofit rooted right here in Hampton Roads. We talked about how COOL’s six-week H.E.A.R.T. program, Healing, Auth...

This week on Tidewater Talk, local news, strange stories, and neighborhood moments that make Coastal Virginia such a fun place to cover. We talked about the Norfolk power outage that left thousands without electricity after a raccoon triggered a Dominion substation shutdown, and we also shared a genuinely heartwarming roadside story about a driver who pulled over just to help with what looked like...

This week on Tidewater Talk, we had Morgan Schottelkorb from Dominion Care for a timely conversation during National Disability Employment Awareness Month. We talked about the work Dominion Care is doing across Virginia to support children, teens, and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including ABA services, a private day school in the Tidewater area, and adult waiver-based...

This week on Tidewater Talk, we sat down with Virginia Beach insurance agent Leslie Schofield to talk about her roots in Coastal Virginia, her family, and the work she’s doing across Hampton Roads. Leslie shared her journey from growing up in Portsmouth to building Tri State MediHealth Solutions and Ashes to Assets Insurance Agency, where she helps families navigate Medicare, life insurance, retir...

This week on Tightwater Talk, Brodie and Co catch up on everything from new hobbies to big local news around Coastal Virginia. We look back at our conversation with Molly Allaire from Joy Farm, talk about the recent nor’easter and the unusual salt-related power outages it may have caused, and react to the city’s plan to turn the longtime Dairy Queen on 17th Street into a police substation. We also...

This week on Tidewater Talk, we sit down with our neighbor Mollie Alaire of Choose Joy Farm in Lanexa, out by the Chickahominy. Mollie was born at the old Williamsburg hospital, and her great-grandpa bought the family's 68 acres in 1901. The family grew watermelons and corn until 2008, when Mollie got a goat to make goat milk soap for her brothers' eczema. Now the farm keeps pygmy goats, Nigerian...

This week on Tidewater Talk, the rain finally shows up and we have plenty to talk about while it does. The Navy is handing every junior sailor barracks in Hampton Roads to a private company in a $1.7 billion deal, including a new 17 story tower in Newport News where Huntington Hall stands today, and Brodie has some opinions about that building. VDOT breaks ground on the Norfolk segment of the Hamp...

This week on Tidewater Talk, we look at drought concerns in Norfolk and Virginia Beach, Hampton Roads Transit reaching 10 million riders, and the history of Virginia Beach’s iconic Cavalier Hotel. We also have the local forecast, surf and tropical updates, and another “Where in Tidewater?” challenge near Kiptopeke State Park. Plus, we share weekend picks including Fall Fest at Mount Trashmore, Com...

This week on Tidewater Talk, we caught up on a little local life and a lot of Coastal Virginia news. We talked about the Wells Theatre reopening quickly after flooding, the Great Bridge in Chesapeake getting stuck open again in the heat, and one of my favorite local history stories yet: Portsmouth’s Richard Dale, who was captured by the British five times and escaped all five. We also revealed las...

This week on Tidewater Talk, we caught up on a little local news and a lot of Coastal Virginia life. We talked about a strange case involving red-light tickets in Virginia Beach tied to a car that had already been sold, then shifted into a health update after the Virginia Department of Health confirmed human cases of West Nile virus in Virginia Beach. We also shared practical mosquito precautions,...

This week on Tidewater Talk, we covered a wide mix of Coastal Virginia stories, from another round of flash flooding in Norfolk to West Nile virus turning up in mosquitoes across multiple Virginia Beach neighborhoods. We also talked through a headline-making lawsuit involving a former Norfolk police officer and her privacy complaint against the department, and then shifted into one of our favorite...

This week on Tidewater Talk, we caught up on a mix of local news, community updates, and one of our favorite oddball Tidewater stories. We talked about Virginia Beach’s free ADA beach wheelchairs available at the Oceanfront and Sandbridge, Norfolk Fire-Rescue becoming the first in the region to move to a fourth shift, and a fun Keep Norfolk Beautiful cleanup event at Lafayette Park. We also touche...

This week on Tidewater Talk, Brodie checked in with Co while fighting through a summer cold, and we still packed the episode with plenty of local updates from around coastal Virginia. We talked about the sudden flooding in Norfolk’s Ghent neighborhood, where a highly localized storm dumped inches of rain in just a few hours, and we highlighted Norfolk’s new free Norfolk 101 Citizens Academy, an ei...

This week on Tidewater Talk, we covered a mix of local news, seasonal updates, and Tidewater trivia. We talked about the USS Nimitz making its final visit before decommissioning in 2027 and reflected on how ships can take on a personality of their own for the people who served on them. We also highlighted Virginia’s tax-free weekend, including deals on school supplies, clothing, hurricane prepared...

This is a rewind episode from 10 March. Let us know if you have anything interesting for us to cover next week at tips@tidewatertalk.com

This week on Tidewater Talk, we covered a little bit of everything happening around Coastal Virginia. We started with a reality check on the recent cyclosporiasis headlines in Virginia, talked about a brief power outage in Isle of Wight caused by a tree limb, and looked at Norfolk’s plan to add a fourth firefighter shift to help reduce burnout and improve long-term health for first responders. We...

Pickle pizza, abandoned ships, dangerous heat, and a very muddy kayaking lesson. In Episode 76 of Tidewater Talk, Brodie and Co explore Suffolk’s Pickle Palooza, including pickle pizza, pickle lemonade, fried pickles, pickled peanuts, and more. Brodie also shares how a misread tide left him stranded in the mud, before uncovering the story of Suffolk’s “Ghost Fleet,” a collection of at least 13 his...

This week on Tidewater Talk , Brodie and Co. sit down with Anmarie Reed, LCSW, Clinical Director at Prosperity Eating Disorder and Wellness Center in Norfolk, for a compassionate conversation about eating disorders, recovery, and the resources available here in Hampton Roads. Anmarie helps explain how common eating disorders are, why they are not about vanity, how they can overlap with anxiety, de...

Good evening, neighbors. This week Brodie and Co are sweating through a Hampton Roads heat dome that is chasing records Norfolk has not touched since 2020, so we are staying hydrated and mostly staying inside. On the news desk, a corpse flower is about to bloom at the Norfolk Botanical Garden sometime between July 4th and 8th, giving off its famous rotting-flesh smell, and that leads us straight i...

This week on Tidewater Talk, we covered a mix of local news, odd stories, and summer happenings around Coastal Virginia. We talked through several new Virginia laws taking effect July 1, including job salary transparency requirements, changes that allow certain criminal records to be sealed from public view, and a new rule requiring speed limiter devices for drivers convicted of going 100 mph or m...

This week on Tidewater Talk, Brodie and Co get you ready for one of the biggest weekends Hampton Roads has seen in years. In the news: Sail250 Virginia kicks off Friday at Town Point Park, bringing 60-plus tall ships from more than 20 countries to the downtown Norfolk waterfront. Virginia Beach Police are also watching the Oceanfront ahead of a rumored teen takeover this weekend. For Strange and O...

This week on Tidewater Talk, Co returns with exciting family news while Brodie discovers he's in Hurricane Evacuation Zone C. The neighbors discuss Virginia Beach's surf park offering free lessons to local kids, a Chesapeake student found with a firearm at school, and the surprising fact that New Kent's speed cameras have generated millions in fines while only about half the tickets have been paid...

Co is out this week celebrating a new grandbaby, so Brodie takes the wheel solo on episode 70. He opens with a follow-up from Thursday -- a fishing run out toward the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel with his daughter that ended with bluefish for dinner and one of those moments you end up talking about for years. No news this week, but Strange and Odd more than covers it. Brodie walks through the U.S....

This week on Tidewater Talk, Co and Brodie talk about a Virginia Beach cold case finally being solved more than 40 years later through advances in DNA technology and genetic genealogy. They also dive into this week’s Strange and Odd of Tidewater featuring Fort Norfolk, a hidden Army fort along the Elizabeth River that dates back to George Washington’s original coastal defense system and somehow st...