The Broadside

As the president of the local chapter of the NAACP, Robert F. Williams led the small town of Monroe, North Carolina in protesting racism and segregation during the 1950s. But he was also head of a local NRA chapter that urged African Americans to defend themselves by meeting violence with violence. His story is one of the most fascinating and unusual in American history, and, in Monroe and elsewhe...

In 1988, the NBA finally came to North Carolina — and the newly minted Charlotte Hornets made an unconventional choice to hire a fashion designer to create their jerseys. They lost 60 games that year, but they looked incredible while doing it. The iconic fit, inspired in part by Michael Jordan, would launch a global fashion trend that endures today. Alexander Julian, Fashion designer and creator o...

Electric vehicles and renewable energy sources are in their boom era — and that means the need for electricity is higher than ever before. The construction of an expanded energy grid to meet that demand is going to require a lot of raw minerals, metals… and a surprising commodity: lumber. This week, we take a trip to the forests of the Southern Pine Belt where demand for big trees far outstrips th...

In the last decade, the craft industry’s boom has steadily spread across Southern states. There are now thousands of breweries in the region (400 in North Carolina alone). But what exactly is a Southern beer? Featuring: Sean Lilly Wilson, Founder of Fullsteam Brewery in Durham, NC Tinu Diver, Documentary Filmmaker Owen Racer, Freelance Journalist Todd Boera, Co-founder and Creative Director of Fon...

At the turn of the 20th century, the epicenter of America’s Black middle class was in a midsize city in central North Carolina. Durham was home to NC Mutual, an insurance company that provided a foundation for Black wealth in the South amidst Jim Crow segregation. Recently though, NC Mutual closed its doors, marking the end to more than a hundred years of business. Featuring: Kimberly Moore, Direc...

NASCAR is the most popular motorsport series across America, but its roots run deep as a regional sport in the South, especially in our home state of North Carolina. That history has heavily influenced the growth of motorsports in the US, which has produced a disproportionate amount of Southern drivers — and fans. But in recent years, a surprising new trend has begun to level that playing field: t...

Any kind of environmental crisis – whether it's caused by an act of God or big industry – can upend a community. That's especially true for the smaller, more rural towns that dot the landscape of the South. In the past century, natural and man-made environmental changes have transformed and even erased some of these places. What happens to small towns when they meet BIG opponents and who fights fo...

Stanton, Tennessee -- population 400 -- is getting ready to welcome a Ford auto-manufacturing campus that will employ 6,000 people. And with it, prosperity and some serious growing pains. This one small town is a microcosm of the powerful new economics at play in states throughout the American South. Featuring: Nora Eckert, Auto Industry Reporter at The Wall Street Journal Links: Check out Nora's...

This year marks the 120th anniversary of Orville and Wilbur Wright's powered airplane flight at Kill Devil Hills in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. But the Wright Brothers aren’t the only icons of aviation with ties to the South. This week, we tell the unlikely story of a woman named Tiny Broadwick. Born into extreme poverty, Broadwick went on to become a trailblazer in the male-dominated world...

This week we're highlighting a recent episode of the award-winning podcast Embodied (which is also produced at WUNC). We hear a lot about toxic fandoms in our culture — but there's also a lot to share about the brighter side. Guest host Anisa Khalifa first became a fan in high school. She gets an explanation from a psychologist about how being in fandoms benefits mental health, and a journalist de...

NPR's annual Student Podcast Challenge is kind of a big deal . In 2023 alone, they received over 3,300 entries. This week on the Broadside, we highlight the work of one of the finalists who uncovered the history of her neighborhood -- Oberlin Village in Raleigh, NC -- and fought to bring it into the light and preserve it for future generations.  Featuring:  Leeya Chaudhuri - Journalist (and studen...

We now know an incredible amount about the COVID-19 virus. But long Covid symptoms and treatment options remain a blind spot. This week, we check in on a group of patients and doctors from the Carolinas who we’ve been following for over a year in order to see how we’re adapting to this second silent pandemic. Featuring: Jason deBruyn, Health Reporter at WUNC-North Carolina Public Radio. Eleanor Sp...

The water supply for millions of people across the South has serious problems. Many of these folks live in majority Black cities like Jackson, Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee. Billions in federal funds were recently allocated to help fix cities' poor water quality, but will it be enough? Join us as we tap into the water across the region and learn what it’ll take to clean it up. Featuring: Adam...

Recent litigation to hold drug makers accountable for the opioid epidemic has led to settlements totaling $50 billion that are being distributed to state governments throughout the United States. We explore some of the potential solutions in our home state of North Carolina and find out how its hyper local model for distributing funds could be a compelling test case for tackling the crisis nationw...

As we all take the week to reconnect with our loved ones, we're presenting a story about what's on our tables this Thanksgiving – and we don't just mean the food, but the plates it sits on. In this episode from the podcast Gravy, producer Wilson Sayre takes us to central North Carolina to tell the story of hand-thrown pottery and its relationship with food. In North Carolina, the history of baking...

For over a hundred years, Western archeologists built vast collections of looted Native American artifacts and human remains. For many Native Americans today, those violations have left a painful legacy. A glimmer of hope appeared in 1990, with the passage of a federal law intended to facilitate the repatriation of Native American ancestors to their tribes. But 30 years later, tens of thousands of...

An army depot in Eastern Kentucky once housed something extraordinary and terrible: an arsenal of chemical weapons. The dangers of this stockpile hovered over the residents of the nearby city of Richmond for decades. Recently, the Army fulfilled a long-standing mandate to destroy their entire supply of these deadly weapons, but the road to get there wasn’t easy. Special thanks to Ben Evans and Ben...

In 1988, two armed Native American men occupied a newspaper office in Southeastern North Carolina. In an effort to raise the alarm on corruption and racism in their mostly rural community, they took 17 hostages and demanded to negotiate with the governor. Decades later, the small town is still grappling with the events surrounding that day. Special thanks to WRAL for providing archival audio inclu...

Discount stores like Family Dollar and Dollar General have become ubiquitous in the American landscape — especially in the South. They can be convenient and even necessary, but some advocates warn that their rapid spread is creating food deserts. But while pushback to dollar stores grows, researchers say that we need more data to know their true impact. So how many dollar stores are too many? Feat...

As a person incarcerated in the state of Virginia, rapper Deon Thomas doesn’t have access to a recording studio. Instead, he’s part of a small group of artists who record songs via phone calls and distribute them through a prison-only digital music service. It's a modern twist on a long and complicated tradition. Join us as we explore the influential, exploitative and ever-evolving world of music...

Asian Americans are the fastest growing demographic in the country, yet historically, they've been near-invisible in our popular culture. But that's beginning to change. We examine the long history of Asian American Studies, and why it's finally having its moment in the South. Featuring: Nayoung Aimee Kwon, professor at Duke University Esther Kim Lee, professor and director of Duke's Asian America...

Embedded in a warehouse within the Blue Ridge Mountains, climate scientists are collecting rows upon rows of weather data going back centuries. But these archives aren’t just collecting dust – they’re helping us anticipate weather events in the future and create tools to navigate the fallout of the climate crisis. Featuring: Kathie Dello, North Carolina’s state climatologist Jason Cooper, archivis...

You might have noticed that the word “y’all” is popping up everywhere. For decades, linguists have noted that regional American accents are disappearing. But at the same time, use of this traditionally Southern pronoun is rapidly spreading — and the reasons may surprise you. Featuring: Brody McCurdy, linguist and researcher at NC State Antonia Randolph, assistant professor of American Studies at t...

Each week, The Broadside highlights a story from the heart of the American South and asks why it matters to you. From news to arts and culture, we dive into issues that might not be on a front page, but deserve a closer look. Along the way, we explore the nuances of our home—and how what happens here ripples across the country. Hosted by Anisa Khalifa, The Broadside is a production of North Caroli...