Nooze Hounds

We talk to WSOC’s Joe Bruno about the recent municipal primary elections, from the low turnout to the far-reaching implications, and what local stories he’ll be checking on in the coming year.

DreamKey Partners President Julie Porter and Roof Above CEO Liz Clasen-Kelly discuss their work around homelessness and the affordable housing crisis, including how it all relates to gentrification, displacement, adaptive reuse, Housing First and other local topics.

 Ryan talks to Zack Wyatt, CEO of Carolina Farm Trust; and Michael Bowling, general manager of CFT Market, the site of a ceremonial groundbreaking the same day they appeared on the podcast. They discuss their plans for the local food distribution and production center as well as topics ranging from equitability in food accessibility to Black food culture in Charlotte. 

Brad Panovich, chief meteorologist at WCNC, discusses recent heat waves, air quality issues and reporting on the effects of climate change in an age of misinformation and social media trolling. 

HopeWay CEO and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Alyson Kuroski-Mazzei joins Dr. Justin Johnson, director of Veteran Services at HopeWay, to discuss the array of ways the nonprofit treats mental illness in Charlotte while touching on topics like stigma, suicide, PTSD and how the pandemic led to a spike in mental illness that is yet to subside. 

Inspired by her own experience, Tiawana Brown founded Beauty After the Bars as a way to help women returning home from incarceration. We discuss the reason for high recidivism rates, the financial pressures that outlast incarceration, and the recent opening of her organization’s first SAFE Home.

Just days after his election to Mecklenburg County Democratic Party Chair, we talked to Drew Kromer about joining a new wave of young leaders in the state, how he plans to address low local turnout and what he thinks the party can learn from Tricia Cotham’s defection. 

Ryan talks to at-large representative LaWana Mayfield about returning to Charlotte City Council after a three-year hiatus, what's changed since she's been gone, and what inspired her passion for social justice issues before embarking on an in-depth discussion about housing solutions in Charlotte. 

Morris Madden is a former MLB pitcher, founder of the Carolinas Metro Reds, and co-founder of the Knothole Foundation of the Carolinas. He discusses his own come-up through the league and how he’s spent his time since bridging racial and economic gaps in accessibility to the sport. 

Ryan speaks with William McNeely, founder and CEO of local nonprofit Do Greater Charlotte, which has transformed the underutilized space under Shiloh Institutional Baptist Church into CRTV Lab at Shiloh, a high-tech creative hub for teens in west Charlotte. 

Lorenzo Steele Jr., founder of Behind These Prison Walls, worked at a guard in one of the country’s most violent juvenile detention centers for 12 years before the work took his toll on him and he left to become an activist against mass incarceration and advocate for youth crime prevention. 

Civility Localized founder Christine Edwards discusses her path from local government employee to launching her own business, through which she works with government agencies and other clients on community engagement, place-making, consulting and other behind-the-scenes work.

Donna Dunlap, CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Central Carolinas, and Keith Cradle, founder of Camping with Cradle, come together to discuss their own experiences that led them into working with youth and why the work is more important than ever. 

Genna Contino, local government reporter with the Charlotte Observer, discusses her first six months of covering Charlotte City Council and Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners, as well as some of today’s hottest news stories.

CMS Board of Education at-large rep Jennifer De La Jara discusses the superintendent search, recent elections, the movement against public education and more. 

Hired this past Summer as President and CEO at Charlotte Museum of History, Terri White discusses what means to be the first Black woman to hold that position and her vision for making the museum a keystone not only of East Charlotte but the Queen City as a whole.

Priya Sircar, the city of Charlotte’s first arts and culture officer, discusses the process behind creating the new Arts and Culture Plan including everything that led up to that and some of the controversy that has come along with it. 

On this episode, Leondra Garrett and Juan Hall with Charlotte’s Alternatives to Violence program discuss their day-to-day work on the ground in the Beatties Ford Road corridor. 

Erin Santos-Primis is the founder and executive director of the Isabella Santos Foundation, which will celebrate it's 15 year anniversary in October. The nonprofit organization was founded in 2007 following Erin's daughter Isabella's neuroblastoma diagnosis.

On the latest Nooze Hounds, A Preferred Women’s Health Center co-owner and executive director Calla Hales discusses how things have changed outside of her clinic over the years, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and how to get involved locally. 

Charlotte photojournalist Grant Baldwin discusses how he found himself at the center of a story that made national headlines this week after a photo he took of two men kissing was removed from an exhibit at a Gaston County history museum.

Dana Draa with Metrolina Association for blind People joins Ryan and Rosebud Turner, an unsighted lifelong teacher, artist and auther, to discuss accessibility in Charlotte.

Newly elected Charlotte City Council Rep. Marjorie Molina discusses her goals for when she's sworn in to represent District 5, from development at Eastland to infrastructure in the rural far-eastern parts of the city.

Newly elected Charlotte City Council rep Dante Anderson discusses her goals for when she's sworn in to represent District 1, one of Charlotte's most diverse districts. 

Housing Justice Advocate Ismaail Qaiyim joins Ryan and Justin to talk Eastland, displacement and gentrification